CBI books ED Assistant Director, others in Rs 5 crore bribery case

ED Assistant Director Pawan Khatri, liquor trader Amandeep Dhall, and the CEO of Claridges hotel were the parties booked in the case.

The CBI has registered an FIR against ED Assistant Director Pawan Khatri in connection with an alleged payment of Rs 5 crore by liquor businessman Amandeep Dhall who wanted help in the Delhi excise policy scam case, officials said.

Along with the two, the CBI has also named an assistant general manager of Air India Deepak Sangwan, the CEO of Claridges Hotels and Resorts Vikramaditya, chartered accountant Praveen Kumar Vats and two others -- Nitesh Kohar, an UDC in the ED, and Birender Pal Singh, they said.

The CBI action was initiated on a complaint from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which during its probe in the Delhi government's excise policy scam found that Amandeep Dhall, an accused in the case, and his father Birender Pal Singh gave Rs 5 crore bribe to chartered accountant Praveen Vats for arranging help in the ED probe, the officials said.

Vats told the ED that Sangwan had introduced him to Khatri in December 2022, they said.

Vats said that he paid Rs 50 lakh as advance to Sangwan and Khatri in December 2022 at a parking place behind ITC Hotel in Vasant Vihar for taking out Dhall's name from the list of the accused, they said.

The ED referred its probe to the CBI, on the basis of which the central probe agency registered a case, they said.