In its initial chargesheet from November, the CBI listed seven people, including Vijay Nair, the AAP's communications coordinator.
Digital Desk: Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has been charged for the first time in the CBI's excise policy investigation. The extra chargesheet submitted by the central agency on Tuesday contained the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party's name.
In addition to the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the CBI has accused Hyderabad-based CA Buchi Babu Gorantla, spirits trader Amandeep Singh Dhall, and Arjun Pandey in the additional chargesheet under IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 201, and 420.
The agency stated in its chargesheet submitted to a special CBI court in New Delhi that the investigation is ongoing to look into a larger conspiracy and the role of additional accused parties in the case.
The AAP has strongly denied the claim that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021–22, which grants licences to liquor sellers, favoured some dealers who reportedly paid bribes for it. Later, the policy was dropped.
Manish Sisodia was detained for allegedly engaging in corruption during the creation and implementation of the excise policy as well as during the money laundering of the proceeds. The CBI claims that alcohol corporations were involved in the formulation of the 2021 excise policy, for which a liquor lobby it termed the "South Group" received payments.
In its initial chargesheet from November, the CBI listed seven people, including Vijay Nair, the AAP's communications coordinator.
Arvind Kejriwal, the chief of Delhi's AAP party, was questioned by the CBI on April 16 for nearly nine hours as a witness in the excise policy case. His party protested, claiming that the charges of a scam were untrue and that the agency was operating at the BJP's direction.
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