Sisodia not named, proves case fake: CM; BJP hits out
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed its first charge sheet in the Delhi excise policy case naming seven people, including Aam Aadmi Party communication strategist Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, a businessman who alleged lobbied for retail liquor licences for South India based companies, three other businessmen and two former officials of the excise department of Delhi.
Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who was named as accused in the CBI first information report (FIR) on August 17, has not been named in the charge sheet and investigation against him and others and into the alleged cartelisation of liquor trade in Delhi is “continuing”, the agency said. Supplementary charge sheets could be filed in depending on evidence, it added.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal called the case “fake”, and said that attempts were being made to frame Sisodia even though the central agency found nothing against the AAP leader. “Manish’s name is not in the CBI chargesheet. The whole case is fake. Nothing was found in the raids. A total of 800 officers found nothing in the probe for four months. Manish offered hope of a good future to crores of poor children in the country through a revolution in education. I am sorry that a conspiracy was hatched to defame such a person by implicating him in a false case,” Kejriwal said.
The BJP, however, maintained that Sisodia was the “prime accused” in the case alleging that the seven people named in the charge sheet were his close associates.
“CBI has filed the charge sheet. Seven people have been named in the preliminary stage. However, AAP is trying to escape the blame by saying Sisodia’s name has been not been included. The fact is he still remains the prime accused and seven people named in the charge sheet are his close aides. This is not the end and probe will further dig to find more evidences to name more people in the charge sheet. Also charge sheet also signifies that there was scam in excise policy and accused were identified,” BJP MP Parvesh Sahib Singh said.
Without divulging details of the charge sheet, CBI said it registered a first information report (FIR) in the matter on August 17 to probe alleged irregularities in framing and implementation of the excise policy of the Delhi government. “It was further alleged that irregularities were committed including in modifications in excise policy, extending undue favours to the licencees, waiver/reduction in licence fee, extension of L-1 (wholesaler) licence without approval etc. It was also alleged that Illegal gains on count of these acts were diverted to concerned public servants by private parties by making false entries in their books of accounts,” CBI Spokesperson R C Joshi said. “Further investigation is continuing to investigate the role of FIR-named accused and other persons on various allegations including conspiracies with other licensees, money trail, cartelization and larger conspiracy in the formulation and implementation of the excise policy,” he added.
Others named in the charge sheet include Sameer Mahendru (managing director of Jor Bagh based liquor distributor Indospirit Group), Arun Ramchandra Pillai (Telangana-based businessman and an associate of Boinpally), Mootha Gautam (managing director of India Ahead News) and two government employees, Kuldeep Singh (former deputy excise commissioner of Delhi) and Narendra Singh (former assistant excise commissioner).