ED arrests former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia after 8 hours of questioning

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 9

A day before his bail application was to come up for hearing in the CBI case against him, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) today arrested AAP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now scrapped Delhi excise policy, officials said.

‘Destroyed phones to conceal proof’

• ‘Evasive’ in his replies, AAP leader ‘wasn’t cooperating in the probe’
• ED likely to obtain production warrant from special PMLA court on Friday
• At least 36 accused, including Sisodia, ‘destroyed, used or changed’ 170 phones to conceal proof of ‘kickbacks’

They said the 51-year-old AAP leader was placed under arrest under the PMLA following his second round of questioning at Tihar Jail for nearly eight hours.

The ED arrested Sisodia a day before his bail plea was scheduled to come up for hearing before a CBI court. However, his judicial custody is till March 20. The officials said the investigators found that the AAP leader was “evasive” in his replies and was “not cooperating in the probe” and was hence arrested.

The ED investigators are expected to obtain a production warrant from a special PMLA court and then produce him before it on Friday to seek his custody for further interrogation. Sisodia is currently lodged in judicial custody after the CBI arrested him on February 26 in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi liquor or excise policy for 2021-22.

The first round of Sisodia’s questioning by the ED took place on March 7 by a three-member team of investigators, who had obtained court permission to question Sisodia during his judicial custody period.

If the ED gets his custody, he will be taken to the agency’s headquarters here for questioning and further recording of his statement and confrontation with other accused, even if he gets bail in the CBI case on Friday.

The agency is understood to have questioned him in jail about the alleged change and destruction of cellphones that were in his possession and the policy decisions and the timeline followed by him as the then Excise Minister of Delhi. These charges were made by it in its chargesheets filed before the court.

Sources said on condition of anonymity that the investigators posed a specific query as to how the excise policy draft was allegedly available with liquor traders and purported cartels even before it was officially published by the Delhi Excise Department.

The ED has informed the court through its chargesheet 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 has also named Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in the second chargesheet filed in the case earlier this year and claimed that C Arvind, a DANICS officer, who was earlier secretary to Sisodia, recorded his statement under the PMLA, saying that he was given the GoM report on the excise policy in the middle of March 2021 when he was called by his boss (Sisodia) to Kejriwal’s residence.

It is alleged that the Delhi Government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers, who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by AAP.

On Sisodia’s arrest, Kejriwal tweeted, “First, the CBI arrested Sisodia. They (CBI) didn’t find any proof against him… Today, the ED arrested him. They (BJP) have only one motive: to keep Sisodia behind bars by implicating him in false cases. People will give a reply to this.”

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#Central Bureau of Investigation CBI #enforcement directorate #manish sisodia