A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's close aide Vijay Nair into custody, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said it has arrested the Managing Director of a liquor distributing company in connection with the money laundering probe involving the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy.
The arrested has been identified as Sameer Mahendru, who is the managing director of Jor Bagh based liquor distributor Indospirit Group. He was placed under arrest under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after he underwent questioning.
The ED money laundering case is based on the FIR registered by the CBI on August 17, accusing Sisodia, Nair and Mahendru among others of irregularities in formulation and execution of the Delhi Excise Policy brought in November last year that led to alleged loss to the state exchequer.
The CBI had on Tuesday arrested Nair claiming that he was not cooperating with the investigation. However, AAP dismissed the claims and alleged that he was arrested because he refused to name Sisodia.
According to the CBI FIR, Arjun Pandey, an alleged associate of Sisodia, had collected about Rs 2-4 crore in cash from Mahendru on behalf of Nair, former CEO of Only Much Louder (OML), an entertainment and event management company.
It also claimed that one of the accused Arun Ramachandra Pillai used to collect money from Mahendru to forward it to public servants through Nair.
It also claimed that Nair, former employee of Pernod Ricard Manoj Rai, Brindco Spirits owner Amandeep Dhal and Mahendru were “actively involved” in the “irregularities in framing” the excise policy.
(Published 28 September 2022, 04:13 IST)
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