ED: Sisodia got ₹2.2 crore bribes in Delhi excise case

A Delhi court on Tuesday took cognisance of the charge sheet, filed on May 4, and summoned Sisodia on June 1.

Former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia received kickbacks worth ₹2.2 crore through his close aide Dinesh Arora from businessman Amit Arora to favour the latter in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed in its charge sheet against the jailed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader.

Manish Sisodia received kickbacks worth ₹2.2 crore through his close aide Dinesh Arora from businessman Amit Arora to favour the latter in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22, the Enforcement Directorate said. (PTI)

This is the first time that an agency probing the alleged irregularities in the excise policy — the Central Bureau of Investigation is conducting a parallel probe — has quantified and directly linked a bribe amount to Sisodia. A Delhi court on Tuesday took cognisance of the charge sheet, filed on May 4, and summoned Sisodia on June 1.

The charge sheet, which has been reviewed by HT, said, “The investigation has revealed that Dinesh Arora (a close aide of Sisodia) and Amit Arora (owner of Buddy Retail Pvt Ltd, arrested on November 30 last year) were involved in various illegal activities pertaining to the Delhi excise Policy 2021-22 and its implementation in conspiracy with other players of this scam. Further, in the policy under investigation, Manish Sisodia has participated in conspiracies with other persons other than the South Group. Sisodia has received kickbacks of ₹2.2 crore from Amit Arora through Dinesh Arora for doing favours in the excise policy 2021-22.”

The central anti-money laundering agency has cited Amit Arora’s statements to back its allegation.

The AAP rejected the allegation, saying in a statement, “This is completely fake. ED chargesheet is complete fiction... ED first implicated (AAP Rajya Sabha member) Sanjay Singh and then withdrew their charges formally in the court. Then they said that Manish ji destroyed 14 phones, which were subsequently found in ED custody. Likewise, this is also a completely false charge.”

The ED charge sheet said that the funds generated in cash by Amit Arora’s firm were used to pay kickbacks to Sisodia. “He (Amit Arora) has submitted the tally accounts of his companies wherein he had paid this money from cash generated from daily sales operations. It has details about cash not deposited on multiple dates for the purpose of paying to Manish Sisodia,” the charge sheet said.

ED, citing Amit Arora’s April 9 statement, said that the first instalment of ₹1 crore “was paid in the second week of April (2021)”, and “the rest of the money amounting to ₹1.2 crore was paid in next 2-3 months from cash sales proceeds of same companies”.

The charge sheet further says that Amit Arora, upon learning that the alleged “South Group” would enter the Delhi liquor business, and was also interesting in the airport business which he ran, went and met Sisodia in March 2021 and requested that a clause be inserted in the policy that no other bidder would get an NOC (no objection certificate) and thus would not get control of his airport business.

“…for this clause insertion in excise policy, Amit Arora had met Sisodia at his residence along with Dinesh Arora. They met him and told him about this proposal and clause, to that Sisodia said ‘okay, it will be done. Rest you can talk to Dinesh’,” the charge sheet said, adding that Dinesh Arora told Amit Arora that he must pay ₹2.5 crore to get this work done.

The clause was ultimately inserted in the new policy.

The ED, citing Amit Arora’s statement, also said that before the commencement of business under the 2021-22 excise policy, when all retailers faced a lot of issues in opening stores or vends, Dinesh Arora arranged a meeting with Sisodia in September 2021.

“In this meeting, Dinesh Arora arrived 15 minutes late, after the (former) Deputy chief minister had already arrived. The meeting was started only after the arrival of Dinesh Arora and Sisodia gestured Dinesh Arora to join and sit right next to him in the meeting. (This fact has been corroborated by other persons also who were present in the meeting). This sent a message across the industry that Dinesh Arora was the person acting on behalf of AAP for the excise matters. Dinesh Arora also used to mention that he was collecting 6% kickbacks on behalf of Sisodia. In addition, he had been boasting about his closeness with Arvind Kejriwal (the CM of Delhi). As per his experience and understanding, Dinesh Arora was hand in gloves with (AAP communications in-charge) Vijay Nair and was handling cash on his instructions for AAP,” the ED charge sheet said.

The Delhi government’s 2021-22 excise policy aimed to revitalise the city’s flagging liquor business. It aimed to replace a sales-volume based regime with a licence fee-based one for traders, and promised swankier stores, free of the infamous metal grilles, ultimately giving customers a better buying experience. The policy also introduced discounts and offers on the purchase of liquor, a first for Delhi.

The plan, however, came to an abrupt end, with lieutenant governor VK Saxena recommending a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the regime. This ultimately resulted in the policy being scrapped prematurely and being replaced by the 2020-21 regime, with the AAP alleging that Saxena’s predecessor sabotaged the move with a few last-minute changes that resulted in lower-than-expected revenues.

On February 26, CBI arrested Sisodia after the agency said that it had recovered several incriminating evidences in the case, and to conduct a fair investigation, his custody was required.

After spending 7 days in CBI custody, Sisodia was sent to Tihar Jail by Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court, from where he was arrested by ED after a nine-hour long interrogation on March 9.

Sisodia and the AAP have dismissed the probe as a politically motivated witch-hunt.