Excise Policy case: Court sends businessman Gautam Malhotra to 14 days of judicial custody
Feb 15, 2023
New Delhi [India], February 15 : The Rouse Avenue Court on Wednesday sent businessman Gautam Malhotra, son of former Shiromani Akali Dal MLA Deep Malhotra, to judicial custody for 14 days in the Delhi Excise Policy case.
Special Judge MK Nagpal decided to send Gautam Malhotra to Judicial Custody till March 1.
The court also sought Enforcement Directorate (ED) reply on a plea moved by Gautam Malhotra seeking 'grounds of arrest'.
Meanwhile, ED also moved an application in Court seeking the expunging of certain remarks made by the court while granting interim bail to businessman Sharath P Reddy.
Gautam Malhotra, the Director of liquor manufacturing and distribution firm the OASIS group, was arrested on Tuesday on charges of money laundering. The ED sleuths arrested the businessman following his questioning in the case.
In October last year, the ED also raided the properties of Gautam and his father in Punjab. The younger son of Deep Malhotra, Gautam is said to manage the markets of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, apart from running the OASIS group's distilleries in Ambala and Indore.
As per sources, Gautam is an associate of Amit Arora, Director of Buddy Retail Pvt Ltd, who was arrested by the ED in November last year in the alleged Delhi Excise Policy scam.
Recently, the same court also decided to send a Hyderabad-based chartered accountant (CA), said to be the auditor of Bharat Rashtra Samiti's MLC K Kavitha, to judicial custody in the now scrapped excise policy case, investigated by CBI.
According to the CBI, during the course of further investigation, his (Butchibabu Gorantla) role has surfaced in the criminal conspiracy with other co-accused persons, in the formulation of favourable liquor policy and deriving undue benefits out of the same.
During the further investigation, the scrutiny of WhatsApp chats recovered from the seized Mobile phones of Butchibabu Gorantla revealed certain incriminating facts about the formulation and implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy.
"He has remained in regular touch with FIR-named accused persons and other suspects during the relevant period. He has also attended various meetings with co-accused/suspects persons in Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai, where criminal conspiracies have been hatched among them," the CBI said.
