The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday filed a cost sheet in opposition to businessman Sameer Mahendru and two of his corporations, as a part of its cash laundering probe into alleged irregularities in Delhi’s 2021-22 excise coverage, mentioned folks accustomed to the matter.
The folks cited above mentioned that the probe in opposition to Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, state excise division officers and different liquor businessmen and middlemen is constant.
Mahendru, who runs Indospirit Group and Khao Gali Eating places, was named as one of many accused within the case and the FIR within the matter alleges that he made two funds — together with ₹1 crore to Dinesh Arora, a city-based businessman and at the least ₹2 crore to Gurugram-based businessman Arjun Pandey — on behalf of former OML chief Vijay Nair, who can be an accused within the case.
ED’s cost sheet comes a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed its personal cost sheet within the case, naming seven folks, together with Nair (who can be the Aam Aadmi Occasion’s communication strategist, Abhishek Boinpally, a lobbyist, three different businessmen and two former officers of the Delhi excise division.
That is the primary cost sheet filed beneath the Prevention of Cash Laundering Act (PMLA) within the case.
ED and CBI are individually probing the 2021-22 excise coverage. ED is probing allegations of cash laundering in framing and implementing the regime, and CBI probe is targeted on alleged irregularities whereas the coverage was being framed that allowed the “cartelisation” of the liquor enterprise in Delhi.
Indospirit was awarded a L1 wholesale licence within the excise coverage.
Investigations are on to verify if the corporate additionally fashioned associations with different corporations to get retail licences in violation of the excise coverage guidelines.
CBI raided his residence on August 19 and the ED searched it within the first week of September.
After arresting P Sarath Chandra Reddy of Aurobindo Pharma Group and wine and spirits agency Pernod Ricard’s senior government Benoy Babu on November 9, ED alleged that particulars of the excise coverage had been leaked to some producers at the least 45 days earlier than they had been launched to the general public.
The federal anti-money laundering company additionally claimed that 34 “vital” folks, together with Sisodia, liquor barons, and senior authorities officers modified 140 cell phones, in a bid to destroy the digital proof.
“The excise coverage was leaked to sure liquor producer (s) a lot earlier than it was launched. It has been discovered that the coverage was made public on the excise division web site on July 5, 2021. Nonetheless, ED has proof in its possession indicating the coverage and plenty of different associated paperwork have been leaked to sure producer (s) on Could 31, 2021,” the company claimed in its remand be aware whereas producing Reddy and Babu within the courtroom.
The Delhi authorities’s 2021-22 excise coverage aimed to revitalise town’s flagging liquor enterprise. It aimed to switch a sales-volume primarily based regime with a licence payment one for merchants, and promised swankier shops, freed from the notorious steel grilles, in the end giving prospects a greater shopping for expertise. The coverage additionally launched reductions and provides on the acquisition of liquor, a primary for Delhi.
The plan, nevertheless, got here to an abrupt finish, with Delhi’s lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena recommending a CBI probe into alleged irregularities within the regime. This in the end resulted within the coverage being scrapped prematurely and being changed by the 2020-21 regime, with the Aam Aadmi Occasion (AAP) alleging that Saxena’s predecessor sabotaged the transfer with a couple of last-minute adjustments that resulted in lower-than-expected revenues.
ED additionally alleged in its remand be aware that bribes price ₹100 crore got upfront to the general public servants by choose enterprise teams.
A senior officer cited above mentioned on Saturday that the bribe quantity and the truth that suspects allegedly modified telephones has been talked about within the cost sheet as nicely.