Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia Twin-Towers of corruption: BJP slams AAP on excise policy row

Excise Policy Row, Excise Policy Case Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, AAP, AAP Scandal

Posing questions to AAP on the excise policy scam, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla on Sunday called Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia as "the twin towers of corruption". "Manish Sisodia and Kejriwal - twin towers of corruption are so desperate that they are trying every trick to divert and deviate. Hence repeating my questions to Manish Sisodia & Kejriwal on the Liquor Scam which have not been answered till date WITH SOME NEW QUESTIONS," he said in a tweet.

In a series of tweets, Poonawalla asked as many as 15 questions to the AAP leaders: "WHO IS VIJAY NAIR an accused in liquor scam-what was his relationship with AAP leaders ?" Nair is one of the accused in the excise policy scam case. Earlier there were reports stating that Nair fled abroad.Further, he asked about their relationship with the 11th accused in the excise policy scam - Dinesh Arora.

"What is your `rishta` with accused no 11 Dinesh Arora? What does he do for AAP? What was his role in the Liquor scam? At whose behest?"According to an FIR stated by the sources, Dinesh Arora is one of the "close associates of Manish Sisodia" and was "actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees to accused public servants".

In another question, he asked the AAP leaders, "Is it not true that an illegal waiver was given to liquor mafia of Rs 144 cr?"Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta had alleged that AAP leaders have waived off Rs 144 crore and gave the contracts to blacklisted companies instead of using it for Covid relief.In another tweet, Poonawalla wrote, "Is it not true that operational period of licensees was extended from 1.04.22 to 31st July 2022 without due approvals."In his questions to the Aam Aadmi Party leaders, Poonawalla had asked if it was not true that the Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) was refunded to the "L1 illegally" and alleged that the balcklisted companies were "allowed to come into retail".

"...Is it not true that the Chief Secretary report pointed out this corruption in his report which became the basis of a CBI probe ordered by the Lieutenant Governor and the AAP played victim card for Satyender Jain too," he said in the tweet.

Sisodia and Kejriwal were also asked by Poonawalla why were they not answering the specific questions and said, "Is this (new excise policy) not a policy to make Delhi `nasha yukt` not `nasha mukt`? Was same being attempted in Punjab?"Calling it the "admission of corruption", Poonawalla also asked via his tweet, "If no corruption took place why did AAP scrap new policy and revert to old one?"Notably, CBI had registered an FIR against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and 14 others in connection with alleged irregularities in the excise policy which was implemented in November last year.Excise officials, liquor company executives, dealers along with unknown public servants and private persons have also been booked in the case.

The FIR alleged that Sisodia, Arva Gopi Krishna, Anand Tiwari and Pankaj Bhatnagar, were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to excise policy for the year 2021-22 "without the approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licencees post tender".The CBI on Friday conducted a raid at the house of Manish Sisodia in connection with the alleged corruption in the implementation of the Delhi excise policy.

CBI registered a case against Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister, GNCTD of Delhi and others including Arva Gopi Krishna, the then Commissioner (Excise), GNCTD of Delhi, Anand Tiwari, the then Deputy Commissioner (Excise), GNCTD of Delhi, Pankaj Bhatnagar, then Assistant Commissioner (Excise), GNCTD of Delhi and 10 liquor licensees, their associates and unknown others on a reference from Ministry of Home Affairs.

It was alleged that irregularities were committed including modifications in the Excise Policy and undue favours were extended to the license holders including waiver or reduction in licence fee, an extension of L-1 license without approval etc.It was further alleged that illegal gains on the count of these acts were diverted to concerned public servants by private parties and making false entries in their books of accounts.

The CBI earlier said the change in the 2015 Lookout Circular (LoC) against liquor baron Vijay Mallya from "detention" to only informing him about his activities was `an error in judgment` as he was cooperating in the investigation and there was no warrant against him.