ED questions Manish Sisodia’s assistant over excise policy

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday questioned Devendra Sharma, personal assistant of Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, in connection with its money-laundering probe into Delhi’s now-scrapped excise policy, people familiar with the development said.

Sharma’s statement, a senior official said, was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The deputy CM, who is named as an accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its first information report (FIR) over the alleged irregularities, claimed in a tweeted that the federal agency had arrested Sharma. However, Sharma walked out of ED’s office after questioning on Saturday evening. CBI had questioned Sisodia on October 17 in the case.

ED conducted raids at five locations in Delhi-NCR in connection with the case on Saturday. Sharma’s premises were searched and he was later brought to the ED office in central Delhi for questioning, an official said. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), meanwhile, alleged that the central agencies, at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), were preparing to arrest Sisodia in the next few days. Speaking at a press conference, AAP legislator Dilip K Pandey said: “They (ED) raided Sisodia’s house, questioned him, raided his ancestral home, but did not find any evidence (of wrongdoing). They even raided Sisodia’s bank locker… But neither has Satyendar Jain bowed down, nor has Manish Sisodia, or Arvind Kejriwal.”

Sisodia, who holds the excise portfolio in the Delhi government, had been named as an accused in CBI’s FIR filed on August 17. Former Delhi excise commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, former deputy commissioner Anand Tiwari, and assistant commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar have also been named.

Nine others have been named as accused -- Vijay Nair (an Aam Aadmi Party member and former chief executive officer of Mumbai-based firm Only Much Louder); Dinesh Arora, who CBI claims is a close associate of Sisodia; Manoj Rai, former employee of liquor maker Pernod Ricard; Sameer Mahendru, managing director of Jor Baghbased Indospirit Group, a distributor; Amandeep Dhal, director of Brindco Sales Pvt Ltd, a wholesaler; Amit Arora, director of Buddy Retail Private Ltd, a retailer; Sunny Marwah of Mahadev Liquors, a trading firm, also a director in Ponty Chadha group firms; Telangana-based Arun Ramchandra Pillai; and Gurugram resident Arjun Pandey. According to CBI, Sisodia, Gopi Krishna, Tiwari and Bhatnagar were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to the excise policy for the year 2021-22 without the approval of the competent authority (the Lieutenant Governor) with an intention to extend undue favours to licencees post-tender.