New Delhi:

The Delhi High court pulled up the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government over a delay in placing before the Assembly Speaker a report by the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) on the ongoing liquor scam, which resulted in the arrests of former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and senior leader Manish Sisodia. 

“The way you’ve been dragging your feet is something unfortunate. You should’ve been prompt in sending it (reports) to the Speaker and having a discussion at the floor of the assembly,” the court told the Delhi government.

Justice Sachin Datta added, “The delay in sending the reports to the Lieutenant Governor and your handling of the matter raises doubts about your bona fides.”

The court also posted the plea by BJP MLAs, including Vijender Gupta, seeking a special session of the Delhi Assembly for later today, but also said, “We are at a stage that the elections are around the corner. How can there be a special session now?”

The report on the Delhi government’s excise policy revealed a revenue loss of Rs 2,026 crore to the state exchequer. The report’s findings stated that there were deviations from the objective of the policy, a lack of transparency in pricing, and violations in issuing licenses that were not penalised.

Of the losses worth Rs 2,026 crore to the state exchequer, the loss of Rs 890 crore resulted from the government’s failure to re-tender the surrendered licenses before the policy period concluded, according to the report. Moreover, exemptions granted to the zonal licenses led to the loss of Rs 941 crore.

“The department was issuing licenses without checking various requirements relating to excise rules and terms and conditions for the issue of different types of licenses. It was observed that licenses were issued without ensuring solvency, submission of audited financial statements, submission of data regarding sales and wholesale price declared in other states and across the year, verification of criminal antecedents from the competent authority, etc.,” the executive summary of the CAG report read.

AAP MP Sanjay Singh on Sunday, however, questioned the origins of the CAG report in question, which revealed a significant revenue loss of Rs 2,026 crore due to irregularities in the Delhi government’s excise policy. He asserted that the Model Code of Conduct is in place and the BJP is “violating” the regulations by spreading fake news.

Earlier, the Delhi Assembly Secretariat had informed the court that tabling the CAG reports on city administration in the Assembly would serve no useful purpose, given that its tenure ends in February. The submission was made in response to a petition by seven BJP MLAs regarding the issue of tabling the CAG reports in the Assembly.

This came after the Delhi High Court sought responses from the Delhi Government, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, and other respondents regarding a petition filed by BJP MLAs seeking a special Assembly session to present 14 CAG reports. The Delhi government had informed the court that all 14 reports had been sent to the Speaker.

With the Delhi Assembly polls set to be held on February 5, the exchanges  between AAP and BJP have become heated up, with the latter attacking the former over Mr Kejriwal’s ‘Sheesh Mahal’ residence. The BJP referred to CAG findings suggesting that the renovation cost of the CM house was raised from Rs 8 crore to Rs 32 crore due to corruption.

Last year, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva’s dip in the Yamuna to highlight an alleged Rs 8,500 crore scam in the river cleaning project took a wrong turn when he developed skin allergies.

Raipur:

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested retired Chhattisgarh IAS officer Anil Tuteja in connection with an alleged liquor scam linked money laundering case in the state, official sources said on Sunday.

The federal agency had detained the 2003 batch officer from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW)/Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) office in Raipur on Saturday where the bureaucrat and his son Yash Tuteja had gone to record their statement in the same case.

The IAS officer was later taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and is expected to be produced before a magistrate seeking his remand, the sources said.

The officer retired from service last year.

The ED had filed a fresh money laundering case in the alleged liquor scam case after the Supreme Court recently quashed its earlier FIR that was based on an Income Tax Department complaint.

The agency shared details of its probe in the case with the state EOW/ACB seeking registration of a FIR and once they filed a FIR, the ED registered a new money laundering case taking cognisance of that complaint.

Money was “illegally” collected from “every” bottle of liquor sold in Chhattisgarh and evidence of “unprecedented” corruption and money laundering of Rs 2,000 crore generated by an alcohol syndicate led by Anwar Dhebar, the elder brother of Raipur Mayor Anwar Dhebar, has been unearthed, the ED had alleged. 

New Delhi:

The phone used by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal two years ago, when the alleged liquor scam was happening, is missing, sources in the Enforcement Directorate have said. When asked about it, the Chief Minister has said that he does not know where it is, sources said, quoting him. This, sources said would be the 171st phone, presumably containing relevant data in the Delhi liquor case that has gone missing. Earlier 170 such phones — belonging to 36 accused — could not be located, the ED has claimed.

Eventually, the agency managed to locate 17 phones from which they recovered data and pieced the case together, the ED has mentioned in its chargesheet in which senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia has been named as an accused.

Investigators have alleged that the rest of the phones have been broken to destroy evidence. So far, phones and laptops have provided the maximum amount of evidence in the case, the agency had said in the chargesheet.

But the maximum number of accused had changed thei phones and laptops between May 2022 and August 2022, the agency has said.

AAP has scoffed at the claims. Sources in the party alleged that the investigation of the Enforcement Directorate “is conducted from the BJP office”. The Enforcement Directorate, they alleged, is the “political partner of the BJP”.

Mr Kejriwal, arrested late on Thursday evening, si being questioned by the ED. He will be in the custody of the agency till March 28.

The Delhi Chief Minister has been discharging his duties from the ED lock-up, his party has claimed. On Sunday, he had issued his first order since arrest regarding drinking water and drainage in the national capital, Delhi minister Atishi said.

ED sources, though, questioned the claim, saying Mr Kejriwal has not been given a computer or paper in the lock-up.

For the arrested leaders of AAP, Holi would be a dismal event that they would celebrate from behind the bars.