DUBIOUS ELEMENTS BEING USED TO MALIGN SISODIA: AAP

With a Delhi court taking cognisance of a May 4 charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy 2021-22, the Aam Aadmi Party has said that there are inconsistencies in the claims made by the central agency against its leader Manish Sisodia, and said that the accusations are based on the statement of businessman Amit Arora, citing which the ED had prepared the charge sheet.

ED has claimed that Sisodia received kickbacks worth ₹2.2 crore through his close aide Dinesh Arora from Amit Arora to favour the latter in the now-scrapped excise policy. The charge sheet also has several references to AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh.

The court took cognisance of the charge sheet on Tuesday.

Hitting back, Singh raised doubts on Amit Arora’s statements, and said that his (Singh’s) name appeared after ED was forced to apologise in court for erroneously mentioning his name in a previous charge sheet in the excise case.

“How come Amit Arora (owner of Buddy Retail Pvt Ltd and himself an accused in the case) did not take my name in any of his previous statements? How is it that when I made the ED apologise to me, my name suddenly appeared in a statement? …this is a clear conspiracy, Amit Arora first fought on a BJP ticket, then he got a sting done on himself, now he has been made to give a statement against me,” Singh said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Singh did not clarify which elections Amit Arora contested.

The MP further claimed that his name did not appear in the first 10 statements that Amit Arora made to ED, but mentioned his name in the 11th.

He said, “The individual making these statements contradicts himself by claiming that the policy in question never materialised. Furthermore, he conveniently omits mentioning my name in his ten previous statements to ED, only to suddenly implicate me in the eleventh...”

The BJP did not respond to the allegations.