The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is contemplating making the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) an accused in an alleged Delhi excise scam case, the agency told the Supreme Court on Monday.
“I have instructions to say that we are contemplating on making Aam Aadmi Party an accused in the liquor scam case,” said Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju during the bail hearing of former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia.
The apex court also questioned the ASG why arguments on framing of charges had not started against Sisodia. The ASG replied that the matter is on the stage of 207 (scrutiny of documents).
Manish Sisodia has been behind bars since February 2023 in connection with the same liquor policy scam. Sisodia, then excise minister, was first arrested by the CBI on February 26 for his alleged role in the “liquor scam”. He resigned from the Delhi Cabinet on February 28. The AAP leader was later arrested by the ED from Tihar Jail.
Earlier this month, AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh was arrested after raids were conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at his residence in Delhi in connection with the excise case. Sanjay Singh’s aides were searched by ED earlier this year.
Singh’s arrest came after Sisodia’s close aide Dinesh Arora and YSRCP MP Magunta Reddy’s son Raghav Manguta turned approver in the money laundering case pertaining to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.
Arora, who was arrested in the money laundering case in July, had also turned approver in the CBI case wherein his statements had played a crucial role in the arrest of former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia.
The Delhi liquor scam case or the excise policy case pertains to allegations by the ED and the CBI that the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge that has been strongly refuted by the AAP.
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