Delhi Liquor Policy Case: ED Questions Manish Sisodia In Tihar Jail For 5 Hours

Manish Sisodia Arrest: The agency is expected to question him once more on Wednesday or Thursday, according to sources.

AAP leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia at Rouse Avenue Court in connection with the Delhi excise policy case, in New Delhi.

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned and recorded the statement of former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday for approximately five hours in connection with the money laundering investigation into alleged irregularities in the excise policy matter, said official sources, reported news agency PTI. It is anticipated that the questioning will continue for the next few days.

The sources stated that Arun Ramchandra Pillai, a Hyderabad-based liquor businessman, was taken into custody on Monday evening by the federal probe agency, which also made a new arrest in this case.

In accordance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the investigators from the ED made their way to the Tihar Jail to question Sisodia and record his statement.

The agency is expected to question him once more on Wednesday or Thursday, according to sources. The questioning lasted about five hours.

On February 26, Sisodia was detained by the CBI in connection with alleged corruption in the development and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi liquor or excise policy for 2021-2022.

He is being held by the court until March 20.

The ED was granted permission by the court to question the 51-year-old leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who was previously the deputy CM of Delhi, for three days in cell number 1 of the jail.

According to PTI, it is anticipated that the agency will question him regarding the alleged alteration and destruction of cellphones that were in his possession, as well as the policy decisions and timeline that he made while serving as Delhi's excise minister. It made these allegations in the chargesheets it submitted to the court.

If the investigation officer has "reasons to believe" that the individual is "guilty" of the offence of money laundering and is being "evasive" in responses, the ED may consider invoking section 19 of the PMLA, which allows it to arrest people involved or accused in a case, at any point during the questioning process.

However, Sisodia's counsel has stated to the court during CBI proceedings that his client was innocent and that the case against him was fabricated.

In connection with the alleged manipulation of the excise policy, the CBI confronted Sisodia in his custody with his former secretary, C Arvind, and the former Excise commissioner, Arava Gopi Krishna.

The CBI's charge sheet for the case, which was filed on November 25 of that year, did not include Sisodia as an accused party.

The AAP vigorously refutes the claim that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021–22, which granted licenses to liquor traders, permitted cartelization and favored certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it. Following the recommendation of a CBI investigation by the Delhi lieutenant governor, the ED filed a PMLA case against the same accused.

Through its charge sheet, the ED informed the court that its investigation revealed that at least 36 defendants, including Sisodia, "destroyed, used, or changed" 170 phones to conceal evidence of "kickbacks" in the alleged scam worth thousands of crores of rupees.

In the second chargesheet that was filed in the case early this year, it also named Arvind Kejriwal, Sisodia's boss and Delhi Chief Minister. It claimed that C Arvind, a DANICS officer who was previously Sisodia's secretary, recorded a statement under the PMLA stating that he was given the GoM report on the excise policy in the middle of March 2021 when he was called to Kejriwal's residence by Sisodia.

In a related development, Arun Pillai was taken into custody on Monday evening following a lengthy questioning session under the criminal provisions of the PMLA. He was later placed in ED custody until March 13 by a Delhi court.

Pillai is a partner in Robin Distilleries LLP, which the ED said represented the "south group," an alleged liquor cartel linked to K Kavitha, the MLC daughter of Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, and others. He is also associated with Sameer Mahandru, a liquor businessman who was arrested, Geetika Mahandru, and their company, Indospirit Group.