Ashish Ranjan
Delhi liquor policy case:Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned the personal assistant (PA) of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Bibhav Kumar, and AAP leader Jasmine Shah in connection with an investigation into alleged money laundering in the Delhi government’s liquor policy.
According to sources, Bibhav was summoned for questioning after the investigation agency learned that he had attended multiple meetings regarding liquor policy, and Jasmine was summoned because he was involved in drafting the excise policy guidelines.
The ED case was opened on the basis of a CBI First Information Report (FIR) lodged the previous year. Among the 15 defendants named in the CBI’s First Information Report were Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, three personnel from the excise department, and a number of vendors and distributors (FIR).
“The Director of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Praveen Kumar Rai, has communicated the directives of the competent authority for the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the excise policy of GNCTD of Delhi for the year 2021-22. In addition, he forwarded a letter from L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena alleging irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the excise policy, according to the FIR.
It is stated that, in addition to Sisodia, then-excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, former deputy excise commissioner Anand Tiwari, and assistant excise commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions regarding excise policy for the year 2021-22 without the approval of a competent authority in order to extend undue favours to the licensees post-tender.
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The CBI detained Butchibabu Gorantla, the former chief of staff for BRS leader K Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, on February 8.
In this matter, the CBI has already lodged a charge sheet. According to the source, they are in the process of filing a supplementary charge sheet in this matter, and as such, they wished to acquire additional evidence to strengthen the case.
