The court has extended the judicial custody of AAP leader Manish Sisodia, Vijay Nair and other accused till May 8, 2024 in the money laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi liquor scam case. ED asked the court for time to file its reply, which was accepted by the court.
Earlier, on Thursday, the court extended the judicial custody of Manish Sisodia in the CBI case till May 7. Sisodia’s judicial custody period in the corruption case was ending on April 24. The CBI had requested the court to extend Sisodia’s judicial custody. At the same time, after a heated argument between both the parties during the hearing, the court reprimanded Sisodia’s lawyers.
What is excise policy scam?
The Delhi government had claimed to increase the revenue of the government by implementing the new excise policy on 17 November 2021. After this, in July 2022, the then Chief Secretary of Delhi had submitted a report to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena regarding irregularities in the excise policy.
In this, along with irregularities in the policy, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was accused of giving undue benefits to liquor traders.
On the basis of this report, the Lieutenant Governor had recommended a CBI inquiry on July 22, 2022, citing violations of rules and procedural lapses in the implementation of the new excise policy (2021-22).
CBI had filed an FIR on this and on the basis of this FIR, ED had registered a case of money laundering. CBI and ED allege that irregularities were committed while revising the excise policy and undue benefits were given to licensees.
In this the license fee was waived or reduced. This policy caused a loss of Rs 144.36 crore to the government exchequer. After recommending an investigation into the matter, on July 30, 2022, the Delhi government withdrew the new excise policy and restored the old system.
