Personally involved, destroyed phones: ED gets Sisodia custody

Sisodia was arrested Thursday by the ED after the agency questioned him inside Tihar Jail – arrested by the CBI on February 26 for his alleged role in the excise policy case, he had been sent to judicial custody until March 20.

Special Judge M K Nagpal at Rouse Avenue Court remanded Sisodia to seven-day ED custody noting that he, according to the agency, “did not disclose the true facts and rather he came up with answers which have been found entirely in contrast and contradiction to the oral and documentary evidence collected so far”.

His bail application in the CBI case will be heard on March 21.

The ED, through its lawyers, Special Public Prosecutor N K Matta and Advocate Zoheb Hossain, moved a 10-day remand application stating that Sisodia needed to be confronted with people called for questioning, and that he had been “evasive from the start”.

“The proceeds of crime are quantified for over Rs 292 crore. Considering the magnitude of the matter, we need to identify the complete modus operandi. We need to confront other persons who we have summoned. We have issued summons to 7 persons. Therefore, we are seeking a remand of 10 days,” Hossain told the court.

The excise policy, he said, was implemented as “part of a conspiracy to give wholesale business to certain private companies”.

Hossain told the court that the “conspiracy” was orchestrated by AAP communication in-charge Vijay Nair, Sisodia and K Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

He alleged that an entity called the South Group paid Rs 100 crore to AAP leaders.

According to the ED, the South Group paid bribes to exploit loopholes in the excise policy to secure uninhibited access to wholesale businesses and retail zones.

Hossain read out the statement of accused Butchibabu Gorantla, a Hyderabad-based chartered accountant: “There was a political understanding between K Kavitha and the Deputy CM. Vijay Nair was trying to impress Kavitha.”

“Statement shows that K Kavitha met Vijay Nair. He wanted to show how he can influence the policy. He was acting on behalf of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister,” Hossain told the court.

“Sisodia was personally involved in getting the file of the Indospirit L1 licence cleared,” he said.

This, he said, was “very important to get done” since it “was the vehicle that would get the kickback done”.

The owner of M/s Indospirit, Sameer Mahendru, is also an accused in the excise policy case. The company is also under investigation for its alleged links with members of the South Group.

“At jet speed, the application comes, it is approved and allocation granted in a few days. All these things check out. They are not random incidents,” Hossain told the court.

He claimed there was destruction of evidence in this case as “14 phones (had been) destroyed or changed”.

“Only two phones could be recovered. Sisodia used SIM cards registered in the names of other persons,” Hossain said.

He also referred to the statement of C Arvind, Secretary to Sisodia, to claim that a GoM (Group of Ministers) draft report was given to him in March 2021, when the senior official was called by Sisodia “at the residence of Arvind Kejriwal, CM”.

The ED alleged that the conspiracy was to grant wholesale business to private entities and fix a 12 per cent margin, and that this was the first time C Arvind saw this proposal, which was never discussed in any of the GoM meetings.

Senior Advocates Dayan Krishnan, Mohit Mathur and Siddharth Aggarwal appeared for Sisodia.

Krishnan told the court that when the excise policy was cleared by the Delhi Lt Governor, he did not make recommendations on issues which are now part of the ED investigation.

“Executive lays down the policy. That’s their job. Please see when a policy is made it goes through several layers, goes through layers of bureaucracy… policy then goes to L-G. The L-G is the Central government in Delhi. He has applied his mind, he sends back three recommendations. Not 12 per cent, eligibility criteria? He must have examined the policy and everybody else,” Krishnan said.

He said “not a single penny was traced” to Sisodia.

“In money laundering, you are expected to look at concealment, possession, use… it has to be traced… not a single penny is traced to me. They say Vijay Nair is representative of Sisodia… It is laughable,” Krishnan said.

He pointed out that Sisodia was arrested a day before his bail application in the CBI case was supposed to be heard.

“This kind of conduct must concern the court. The process itself is illegal here. It can’t be that a person is kept in custody in a special Act (PMLA) just to ensure that he does not get bail… A court cannot ignore that the timing of arrest here is mala fide and only to keep a man in continued detention,” Krishnan said.

Mathur said, “It’s a fashion these days that they take it (arrest) as a matter of right. Time has come for these courts dealing with such agencies, they must come down heavily in case of any entitlement that they feel they have.”