Delhi liquor scam: ED arrests Hyderabad-based Arun Pillai before questioning Sisodia in Tihar

The federal agency is probing the case based on an FIR filed by the CBI.

Last year, the CBI inspected Pillai’s residence and other premises and reportedly seized important documents.

He is also linked to arrested liquor businessman Sameer Mahendru, his wife Geetika Mahendru, and their company, IndoSpirits.

Federal agency to seek Pillai’s custody

Pillai will be produced before a local court where the ED will seek his further custody for interrogation, the ED said.

The ED said Pillai had a role in the conspiracy involving the ‘South Group, and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders.

Meanwhile, the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi granted conditional bail to Gorantla Butchibabu, former auditor of Kavitha, on Monday.

The ED had mentioned that Butchibabu, along with Pillai, Abhishek Boinpally, and Pharma company director P Sarath Reddy, represented Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, an MP from Andhra Pradesh, his son Magunta Raghava Reddy and Kavitha.

The ED said that the representatives of the main players of South Group, including Pillai, were in regular touch with each other and the liquor traders in Delhi.

ED to question Sisodia in Tihar

The ED is expected to question and record the statement of former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday, 7 March, official sources said.

The investigators will reach the Tihar Jail around noon to record the statement of Sisodia under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The CBI arrested Sisodia on 26 February in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi liquor or excise policy for 2021-22.

He is remanded in judicial custody till 20 March.

ED to question regarding cell phones

The ED obtained the court’s permission to question the 51-year-old AAP leader, who till recently was the deputy chief minister of Delhi, in cell number 1 of the Tihar jail.

The agency is expected to question him about the alleged change and destruction of cell phones that were in his possession and the policy decisions and the timeline he had followed as the excise minister of Delhi.

These charges were made by it in its supplementary complaints filed before the court.

The ED may invoke Section 19 of the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act), which allows it to arrest people involved or accused in the case if the investigation officer has “reasons to believe” that the person is “guilty” of money laundering.

The CBI, during its custody of Sisodia, had confronted him with the statements of his former secretary C Arvind and then Excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna in connection with alleged manipulation of the excise policy.

The CBI had not named Sisodia as an accused in its charge sheet filed in the case on 25 November last year.

CBI interrogates Sisodia’s aide

The CBI on Tuesday questioned Sisodia’s personal assistant Devender Sharma, officials said.

Sharma alias Rinku was summoned to the CBI headquarters where he was questioned by officials of the anti-corruption branch since morning, they said.

The CBI alleged that wholesale dealers were given undue profit margins under the influence of the ‘South Group’ in the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP. The policy was later scrapped.

“It was further alleged that irregularities were committed, including modifications in the excise policy, extending undue favours to the licensees, waiver/reduction in licence fee, the extension of L-1 license without approval, etc,” a CBI spokesperson had said after the FIR was filed on 17 August last year.

“It was also alleged that illegal gains on the count of these acts were diverted to concerned public servants by private parties by making false entries in their books of accounts,” the official had said.

Bribes paid by liquor traders

The ‘South Group’, the ED alleged, had paid ₹100 crore kickback to Vijay Nair, who is the communications in-charge of AAP.
In return, Nair ensured that the ‘South Group’ secured stakes in wholesale businesses as it had no hold over the Delhi liquor business.

He ensured that the group was allowed to hold multiple retail licences over and above the permissible number as per the excise policy.

Dinesh Arora, a close associate of Nair, in his statement on 1 October 2022 revealed that the ‘South Group’ gave ₹100 crore to Nair in advance and it was to get back the money from three major wholesalers.

The ED has informed the court through its charge sheet that its probe found that at least 36 accused, including Sisodia “destroyed, used or changed” 170 phones to conceal evidence of “kickbacks” worth thousands of crores of rupees in the alleged scam.

It had also named Sisodia’s boss and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in the second charge sheet filed in the case early this year.

The charge sheet claimed that C Arvind, a DANICS (Delhi, Andaman and Lakshadweep, Dadra, Nicobar Island, Lakshadweep, and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Civil Service) officer, who was earlier secretary to Sisodia, recorded his statement under the PMLA.

He reportedly stated that he was given the GoM (Group of Ministers) report on the excise policy in mid-March 2021 when his boss (Sisodia) called him to Kejriwal’s residence.

(With PTI inputs)