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Delhi: ED attaches properties worth over ₹76 cr in excise policy matter

By IndianMandarins- 25 Jan 2023
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New Delhi (25.01.2023): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties worth around ₹76.54 crore that belong to several key people in Delhi excise policy scam. The agency, however, refused to divulge any name of the accused persons whose properties have been provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The federal agency had filed its second charge sheet against five individuals in first week of this month including the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) communications in-charge Vijay Nair, and seven companies into the alleged irregularities in the suspended Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.

The other four individuals named in the charge sheet include Abhishek Boinpally, an alleged consultant who lobbied for alleged ‘South Group’, Aurobindo Pharma’s promoter P Sarath Chandra Reddy, Pernod Ricard’s manager Benoy Babu and owner of Buddy Retail Pvt Ltd, Amit Arora.

The first charge sheet was filed by ED in the case against businessman Sameer Mahendru in November last year.

ED is yet to name deputy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia in any of the charge sheets but investigations against him and other named persons in the case is continuing. In its first charge sheet, filed on November 26 last year, under PMLA, in which only businessman Sameer Mahendru and his firms were named, the federal agency had claimed that Mahendru had formed a ‘super cartel’ with the alleged ‘South Group’ to control nine out of 32 retail zones in Delhi’s liquor business.

The Delhi government’s 2021-22 excise policy aimed to revitalise the city’s liquor business. It aimed to replace a sales-volume based regime with a license fee one for traders, and promised swankier stores, free of the infamous metal grilles, ultimately giving customers a better buying experience. The policy also introduced discounts and offers on the purchase of liquor, a first for Delhi. The plan, however, ended abruptly, with lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena recommending a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the regime.

 

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