Liquor scam: Dinesh Arora worked on behalf of Manish Sisodia, Vijay Nair: ED

New Delhi: Businessman Dinesh Arora, a CBI witness in the Delhi excise policy case, was "one of the main conspirators" in this alleged scam and was working on behalf of AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Vijay Nair, the Enforcement Directorate alleged before a local court on Friday.

The federal agency arrested Arora late on Thursday night after prolonged questioning. It produced him before the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court of Judge M K Nagpal on Friday which sent him to ED custody till July 11.

"Dinesh Arora is one of the main conspirators in the entire Delhi excise policy scam who was working on behalf of (former Delhi deputy chief minister) Manish Sisodia and (AAP communication in-charge) Vijay Nair. He is a close associate of Manish Sisodia and other prominent AAP leaders.

"On the directions of Manish Sisodia, Dinesh Arora connected with Vijay Nair and became part of the Delhi excise scam-related conspiracy and consequent acts of money laundering," the ED alleged while seeking the remand of Arora.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has strongly refuted the charges of wrongdoing against Sisodia and in the formulation of the Delhi excise policy 2021-22.

Sisodia and Nair have been arrested in this case by the ED and also the CBI which is the primary central agency probing this case framed against the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP in Delhi and some other politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats.

A Delhi court had on November 16 last year allowed the CBI's plea to make Dinesh Arora an approver in the case and pardoned him.

It is probably a rare or the first instance where an accused-turned-approver (prosecution witness) in the CBI investigation has been arrested by the ED while the two federal agencies probed the same case.

The ED's 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 provisions.

The agency further claimed in its remand paper that Arora was "directly" involved in the movement of kickbacks of Rs 31 crore from the South Group to Vijay Nair and further involved in facilitating the recoupment of Rs 100 crore for the group.

The South Group is an alleged liquor syndicate involving Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter K Kavitha, YSRCP MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and his son Raghav Magunta, among others The Enforcement Directorate claimed that Arora played an "active role in arm twisting, with the approval and sanction of the top leaders of AAP/Vijay Nair, into surrendering of an L1 (liquor company) who were not paying kickbacks as desired by the AAP leaders".

The agency claimed that due to the alleged conspiracy by Arora and others, "proceeds of crime" of at least Rs 45.62 crore were generated and he also played a role in the "generation, transfer, concealment" of these monies.

It said the investigating officer has recorded Arora's statement on 10 different dates since September last year but he has "not revealed" the entire truth and was not cooperating with the investigation with his "evasive" replies.

"Hence, custodial interrogation of Dinesh Arora is the need of the hour to unearth this multi-crore scam and trace the proceeds of crime," the probe agency said.

Dinesh Arora is the 13th arrest in this case by the ED in which it has filed five charge sheets till now, including against Sisodia.

The ED and the CBI have alleged that the 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. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi has strongly refuted the charge.

The 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 PMLA.