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ED summons 3 Punjab officials over excise policy
After Delhi CM Kejriwal's arrest, ED turns to Punjab, summons officials linked to excise policy. Opposition seeks ED probe into state's liquor policy.
After the arrest of the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in an excise policy case, the enforcement directorate has redirected its gaze towards Punjab. The financial investigation agency has again summoned three Punjab officials — two IAS officers, KAP Sinha and Varun Roojam, and additional excise commissioner Naresh Dubey.
The trio has been asked to appear before the federal agency at its Delhi headquarters. The agency has sent a letter to the Punjab government to ask its officers to join the probe, said an official in the state excise department, who didn’t wish to be named.
KAP Sinha is currently special chief secretary of agriculture and rural development department, Roojam is the state excise and taxation commissioner, and Naresh Dubey is an excise department official, who as per ED, dealt with the framing of Punjab excise policy.
As per the ED probe, all three officials were allegedly involved in framing the 2022 Punjab’s excise policy.
In 2022, the ED sleuths conducted searches at the residences of Roojam in Sector 20, Chandigarh, and joint commissioner (excise) Naresh Dubey in Panchkula. Earlier also the trio had appeared before ED in the same case in 2022.
The ED had also alleged that Roojam and Dubey were present at the residence of Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who is also under arrest in the Delhi excise case when the Punjab policy was framed.
The trio is in soup after the statement of Deepa Chadha, who said that she was coerced by Punjab authorities to surrender her L1 license in Delhi by clamping down on the operation of her Punjab-based distillery.
In 2023, the Punjab government turned down the Central Bureau of Investigation’s request to probe two senior IAS officers from Punjab in connection with the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.
It has been learned that the CBI wrote to the Punjab government, seeking mandatory permission under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, to investigate Sinha and Roojam.
The opposition parties in Punjab have been seeking a probe into the state’s excise policy, claiming that it is on lines of the one in Delhi. A Punjab BJP delegation on March 23 had met the state’s chief electoral officer, Sibin C, seeking an enforcement directorate (ED) probe into the state’s excise policy.
The leader of opposition Partap Bajwa has also demanded a probe into the Punjab liquor policy.
