Delhi excise scam case: Court extends ED custody of CBI's approver Dinesh Arora

A court here on Tuesday extended by six days the Enforcement Directorate custody of businessman Dinesh Arora in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise scamArora had been on November 16 declared an approver in a corruption case related to the alleged scam being probed by the CBISpecial Judge M K Nagpal extended Aroras ED custody till July 17 after he was produced before the court on the expiry of his fourday custodial interrogation granted earlierSeeking the businessmans custody for seven more days the federal probe agency told the court that his interrogation was required to unearth a larger conspiracy in the matterArora was arrested under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA late on the night of July 6 after a long session of questioning Sources said he was evasive in his replies and was not cooperating with the agency following which he was arrestedHe was allegedly a close associate of Aam Aadmi Party leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia who is also an accused in the excise policy case and has been arrested by the ED as well as the CBIThe ED in a supplementary charge sheet has accused Sisodia of receiving bribes from Amit Arora another businessman also an accused in the case through Dinesh Arora The federal probe agency has described this bribe amount as proceeds of crime under PMLAAmit Arora paid Rs 22 crore to Manish Sisodia through Dinesh Arora for getting policy changes in his favour in the GoM reportexcise policy 202122 This amount is directly a bribekickback to a government functionary and is proceeds of crime under section 21u of PMLA 2002 In this manner Manish Sisodia participated in the generation of this proceeds of crime the ED said in its prosecution complaint filed in MayAmit Arora is the promoter of liquor companies Buddy Retail Pvt Ltd Popular Spirits and KSJM Spirits LLPAlso readAdaniHindenburg row SC asks SEBI about status of probeIt is probably a rare or the first instance where an accusedturnedapprover prosecution witness in the CBI investigation has been arrested by the ED while the two federal agencies probed the same caseThe EDs money laundering case stems from the predicate offence registered by the CBI If the CBI case falls the money laundering case too will not stand as per a Supreme Court order of last year where it issued a number of directives while interpreting PMLA provisionsDinesh Arora is the 13th arrest in this case by the ED in which the probe agency has filed five charge sheets including against SisodiaThe ED and the CBI have alleged that the Delhi governments excise policy for 202122 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it The ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi has strongly refuted the chargeThe excise policy was scrapped after Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the corruption allegation Following this the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering ActThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever