Excise policy scam: ED summons Sisodia's PA to join probe
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Mar, 2023 10:18 AM
New Delhi, March 17 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday summoned Devender Sharma, the personal assistant of former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, for questioning in connection with the now-scrapped excise policy scam case.
Sharma has been asked to appear before the ED on Saturday by 10 a.m.
A source said there are probabilities of confronting him with Sisodia.
The ED has already got Sisodia's custody for five more days.
The ED had earlier said in the court that during questioning, former Secretary C. Arvind, Excise Secretary Arava Gopi Krishna and Sanjay Goyal were confronted together.
The ED, while seeking more custodial remand of Sisodia, has said that C. Arvind had to be confronted again. Apart from him, the ED wants to confront witness Dinesh Arora, and an accused Amit Arora.
The ED has said that it has recovered huge cloud data which they were looking into. It also sought to know about the cell phones of all the accused which went missing.
As of now, the ED has filed two chargesheets in connection with the matter.
The accused were identified as Mohd. Danish (33) and Danish alias Raja (30), both residents of Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh. Police have also recovered five high end luxury cars and SUVs from the possession of the accused.
The cause of the provocation is yet to be ascertained, an official told IANS, adding the situation is under control. Videos of the ruckus were viral on the social media. Many parked vehicles and a nearby police station was pelted on with stones.
The court had, on March 4, extended Sisodia's CBI custody for two days and listed his bail plea for March 10 and in the last two days, the CBI questioned him with key witnesses -- former excise commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna and former excise department secretary C. Arvind -- in this case, who recorded their statements in front of a magistrate.
A police official said that the two men, wearing masks, entered the bank branch at around 9.45 a.m. when only three employees were present there, and threatened the staff with a pistol. They forced the staff to open the vault where Rs 10 lakh was kept and fled with the money by 10.30 am.
The Chief Minister, who reviewed the arrangements for the mega event here, said Punjab is fully ready to host the sessions and asked the officers to ensure foolproof arrangements for the working sessions slated to take place at the holy city of Amritsar next week.
The arrested customers have been identified as Anil, Rajan, Sagir, Abhishek and Harish. The house belongs to one Neeraj Bhati. Police recovered six mobile phones, Rs 2,100 in cash and objectionable items from their possession.
