Agencies
NEW DELHI, July 29: Concluding its probe in the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, the CBI on Monday filed its final charge sheet in the case against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five others, including AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak, officials said. The federal probe agency had earlier filed a main charge sheet and four supplementaries in the case in which former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Telangana MLC K Kavitha and 15 others have also been charged. It said the charge sheet filed on Monday is the final one in the case. The CBI has named Kejriwal, AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak, non-executive director of Aurobindo Pharma P Sarath Chandra Reddy, director of Buddy Retail Pvt Ltd Amit Arora, alleged hawala operator Vinod Chauhan and businessman Ashish Mathur as accused.
The probe agency has alleged that liquor businessman Magunta Sreenivasalu Reddy (now a TDP MP) met Kejriwal on March 16, 2021, at his office in the Delhi Secretariat.
Reddy allegedly requested Kejriwal to provide support in his liquor business in the national capital by tweaking the Excise Policy 2021-22 which was then in the making, the CBI said in its charge sheet against K Kavitha.
Kejriwal assured support to Reddy and asked him to contact the accused K Kavitha as she was working with his team on the Excise Policy of Delhi, the CBI has alleged.
The Delhi chief minister, in turn, allegedly told Reddy to provide funds to his Aam Aadmi Party, the probe agency has alleged.
The CBI also claimed that kickbacks of around Rs 90-100 crore were paid in advance to some politicians of the ruling AAP in Delhi and other public servants by some persons in the liquor business from South India through co-accused Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally and Dinesh Arora to tweak the 2021-22 Excise Policy.
The agency had alleged that these kickbacks are found to have been returned to them subsequently out of the profit margins of wholesalers holding L-1 licenses through different modes, like issuance of excess credit notes, bank transfers, and outstanding amounts left in accounts of the companies controlled, by some conspirators from the South lobby. The CBI had alleged that a cartel was formed between three stakeholders of the said policy - liquor manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers - by violating provisions and against the spirit of the policy.
All the conspirators allegedly played active roles in achieving the illegal objectives of the said criminal conspiracy. It resulted in huge losses to the exchequer and undue pecuniary benefits to the public servants and other accused involved in the conspiracy, the CBI has alleged. |
