The raids began early in the morning, with agency teams seen leaving the Delhi headquarters for the raid sites.
Digital Desk: The Enforcement Directorate conducted new raids today in 35
locations across Delhi, Punjab, and Hyderabad, deepening its money laundering
investigation into alleged irregularities in the now-cancelled Delhi liquor
policy.
In these states,
searches are being done at locations connected to distributors, retailers, and
supply chain networks for alcoholic beverages.
The searches are taking
place at locations associated with liquor companies, distributors, and supply
chain networks in these states.
The raids began early in
the morning, with agency teams seen leaving the Delhi headquarters for the raid
sites.
Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal taunted the Central Government, calling the raids "dirty
politics."
"More than 500
raids have been conducted, and over 300 CBI/ED officers have been working
around the clock for the past three months to gather evidence against Manish
Sisodia. Nothing can be found. because there was nothing done "Mr.
Kejriwal posted in a tweet in Hindi.
"So many officers'
time is being squandered for their dirty politics. How will such a country
develop?" He added.
The money laundering
case in the excise policy, the latest scuffle between the ruling AAP and the
BJP, stems from a CBI FIR in which Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia
and some Delhi government bureaucrats are named as defendants. The CBI is
looking into whether the policy aided liquor cartels.
The BJP accuses the
policy of massive corruption, which allowed retailers to offer steep discounts
in order to attract customers. The AAP, on the other hand, claims that its
policy was designed to combat corruption and accuses the BJP of misusing
central government agencies for political purposes. Liquor businessman Sameer
Mahendru was arrested last week by the probe agency which has conducted several
rounds of raids in the case. His arrest came a day after Vijay Nair, AAP's
communications chief and a close aide of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia,
was arrested by the CBI.
The Delhi Excise Policy,
implemented from November 17 last year, was scrapped by Arvind Kejriwal
government in July this year following a CBI probe recommended by Delhi
Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena into its implementation. Mr Saxena
alleged that the policy was implemented "with the sole aim" of
benefiting private liquor barons by causing huge losses to the exchequer.
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