Liquor barrons were controlling things from behind curtains: CBI FIR

New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS) In its FIR filed in connection with alleged irregularities in Delhi's new excise policy, the CBI has said that the policy was introduced with an intention to extend undue favours to the licencees post tender.

It also said that Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia along with few liquor barrons were actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees to accused public servants.

The CBI got the compmaint in this respect from the MHA. The complaint read that there were irregularities in framing and implementing the excise policy of GNCTD of Delhi for the year 2021-22.

"Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Arva Gopi Krishna, the then Commissioner (Excise), Anand Tiwari, the then Deputy Commissioner (Excise), and Pankaj Bhatnagar, Assistant Commissioner (Excise) were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to excise policy for the year 2021-22 without approval of competent authroity with an intention to extend undue favours to the licencees post tender," read the FIR, which has been accessed by IANS.

It has been alleged that Vijay Nair, Former CEO of Only Much Louder, an entertainment and event management company; Manoj Rai, ex-employee of Pernod Ricard; Amandeep Dhal, owner of Brindco Spirits; and Sameer Mahendru, owner of Indo Spirits were allegedly actively involved in framing and implementing the excise policy.

The FIR alleged that some of the L-1 licence holders were issuing credit notes to retail vendors with an ab-intio intention to divert the funds as undue pecuniary advantage to public servants.

In furtherance to this, they were showing false entries in their books of accounts to keep their records straight.

Amit Arora, Director of Buddy Retail Pvt Ltd, Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey were close associates of Sisodia and were actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees to accused public servants.

"Sameer Mahendru, MD, Indospirits, transferred an amount of Rs 1 crore to the account of Radha Industries, which was being managed by Dinesh Arora. Arun Ramchandra Pillai used to collect undue pecuniary advantage from Mahendru for onward transmission to accused public servants through Vijay Nair. A person named Arjun Pandey had once collected a huge cash amount of about Rs 2-4 crore from Mahendru on behalf of Nair," the CBI FIR read.

Mahadev Liquors, a proprietorship firm, was granted L-1 licence and Sunny Marwah was the authorised signatory of the firm.

The big claim is that Marwah is also the director in companies being managed by the family of late liqour barron Ponty Chadha. Marwah was in close contact with the accused public servants and had been regularly giving undue pecuinary advantages to them.