ED searches multiple locations in Delhi excise policy money laundering case

New Delhi: As part of its ongoing probe, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting raids at multiple locations across the country in connection with the Delhi Excise policy scam case.

Around 30 premises in Delhi, Telangana, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka were searched on Tuesday, and private individuals named in the case are being raided, the officials said.

But these do not include premises linked to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia or any other government servant.

Sisodia and some bureaucrats have been named as accused in the alleged scam related to the Delhi excise policy, which has now been rolled back.

The federal agency initiated a probe in the case, under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), after taking cognizance of a CBI FIR that has named Sisodia and 14 others.

The CBI had conducted raids in the case on August 19, covering the Delhi residences of Mr. Sisodia, 50, IAS officer and former Delhi excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, and 19 other locations across seven states and Union Territories.

Manish Sisodia holds multiple portfolios in the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government including excise and education.

Probe agency ED is investigating if alleged irregularities were done in the formulation and execution of the Delhi Excise Policy brought out in November last year.

The scheme came under the scanner after Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena recently recommended a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the implementation of Delhi's Excise Policy 2021-22.

He had also suspended 11 excise officials in the matter.

Sisodia too demanded a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the policy.

The CBI inquiry was recommended on the findings of the Delhi chief secretary's report filed in July showing prima facie violations of the GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR)-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009 and Delhi Excise Rules-2010, officials said.

The Enforcement Directorate, during its probe, will analyze if individuals and companies who were involved in the policy-making of this scheme and related entities generated any "proceeds of crime under the definition of PMLA" and if there was any possible creation of illegal or Benami assets, sources had told Press Trust of India.