Delhi's excise money laundering case: Court extends judicial custody of 4 accused till Jan 7
Jan 02, 2023
New Delhi [India], January 2 : The Rouse Avenue Court on Monday extended the Judicial remand of businessmen Sharath Reddy, Binoy Babu, Vijay Nair and Abhishek Boinpally till January 7, 2023, in connection with the alleged Delhi Excise Policy scam money Laundering case.
The Court while extending the Judicial custody noted that the bail petitions of all these accused are presently pending in this court for arguements on different dates.
The Special Judge MK Nagpal also noted the submissions of the ED special public Prosecutor that the agency is in the process of filing supplementary chargesheet against all arrested accused till January 5, 2023.
Earlier the Court was informed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that the next chargesheet would be a common chargesheet against all arrested accused in connection with the alleged Delhi Excise Policy scam money Laundering case.
In November month, ED had filed its first prosecution complaint (Chargesheet) in a money laundering case revolving around an excise policy case. The Chargesheet was filed against Businessman Sameer Mahendru and some entities informed ED officials in the court.
The Chargesheet was filed against Businessman Sameer Mahendru as 60 days mandatory period was getting over today. ED had made the first arrest of businessman Sameer Mahendru on 27th September in this case.
ED also informed the court that further investigation is continuing to investigate the role of ECIR named accused and other persons on various allegations.
Investigation regarding the role of other accused persons including the phasing out of the remaining proceeds of crime is still pending and a supplementary chargesheet would be filed at a later stage, stated ED in court.
The Court is presently examining five bail petitions moved by Businessmen Sharath Reddy, Sameer Mahendru, Binoy Babu, Abhishek Boinpally and Vijay Nair.
The six accused Amit Arora who was arrested later is presently in judicial custody.
According to the ED, among the accused public servants are Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar.
Other accused are Manoj Rai, a former employee of Pernod Ricard; Amandeep Dhal, director of Brindco Sales; director of Buddy Retail Amit Arora, and Dinesh Arora; authorised signatories of Mahadev Liquors Sunny Marwah, Arun Ramchandra Pillai and Arjun Pandey.
The ED and the CBI have alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority's approval. The beneficiaries diverted "illegal" gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection.
The FIR in the case was instituted on a reference from the Union Home Ministry following a recommendation from Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena.
