Delhi liquor policy: ED files 3,000-page chargesheet, Manish Sisodia not on list

Sameer Mahendru, promoter and managing director of Indospirits, was arrested by ED on September 27 this year. He was the first person to be arrested in the Delhi liquor policy case.

In its first charge sheet linked to the Delhi excise policy case, the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday named liquor businessman Sameer Mahendru in the alleged money laundering case. The ED said that the charge sheet – which is about 3,000 pages – also mentions two other persons. However, Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia is not on the list.

Businessman Sameer Mahandru's Jor Bagh residence, where the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted a raid in September. (Photo by Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times)

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a tweet, hit out at the BJP-ruled Centre over its repeated attacks on the Delhi minister and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should apologise to the country for it.

“Manish ji not named in ED chargesheet… Shouldn't Modi ji apologise to the country for implicating Manish ji, who made India world-famous by creating an education revolution, in a false case? Will putting those who do good work in jail move the country forward,” he wrote in Hindi.

Meanwhile, the agency informed that sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) have been pressed in the charge sheet filed before a local court in the national capital.

Sameer Mahendru, promoter and managing director of Indospirits, was arrested by ED on September 27 this year. He was the first person to be arrested in the case.

According to a PTI report, ED has undertaken 169 search operations so far in connection to the Delhi liquor policy case, filed after taking cognisance of the FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the recommendation of the Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena.

A total of five people have been arrested by the ED till now.

According to news agency PTI, the ED's 60-day mandatory period was getting over today. The CBI too has filed its first charge sheet in the case.

The CBI named seven people, including Aam Aadmi Party communication strategist Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, a businessman who allegedly lobbied for retail liquor licences for South India based companies, three other businessmen and two former officials of the excise department of Delhi in the charge sheet.

(With agency inputs)