The Enforcement Directorate is conducting searches at 40 locations spread across multiple states as part of a money laundering investigation linked to alleged irregularities in the now-withdrawn Delhi excise policy. 20 of these locations are in TRS-ruled Telangana’s capital, Hyderabad, sources said.
The searches are being conducted at premises linked to liquor businessmen, distributors, and supply chain networks in Nellore and some other cities in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi-NCR, officials sources said.
This is the second rounds of raids in as many weeks regarding the case. The probe agency had last week searched around 45 locations in Delhi, Telangana, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka, in addition to raiding private individuals named in the case.
Today’s raids come early on a day when Delhi minister Satyendar Jain, arrested more than three months ago in a money laundering case, is also to be questioned regarding the liquor sales policy.
Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party Chief Arvind Kejriwal, who has accused the Centre of misusing central probe agencies for political vendetta against his party leaders, and denied any irregularities in the controversial liquor policy, will address the media soon.
The liquor policy is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as well as the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which probes financial crimes, following a directive from Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, a representative of the BJP-led government at the centre.
Action by central probe agencies on AAP ministers features prominently in the party’s Gujarat electoral campaign. It claims the ruling BJP is harassing its ministers and hindering the development work of the Delhi government as it is intimidated by public support for the party.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and AAP’s face for its big educational reforms claims, Manish Sisodia, has been raided and named an accused by the CBI in the case after the Lieutenant Governor ordered a probe in July. That same month, Arvind Kejriwal’s government withdrew the policy, which had come into force in November last year and brought private players into liquor trade. The AAP said the policy was for more revenue “but scuttled by the BJP’s central government using the Lieutenant Governor”.
The BJP says kickbacks were taken for contracts.
In the latest back-and-forth today, the BJP showed a secretly-recorded video in which a person — also named in the FIR — is claiming that the Delhi government deliberately kept smaller players out of its “tailormade” excise policy to help a few persons. It shared the video — not independently verified by NDTV — on Twitter as well.
With inputs from NDTV