PNS|New Delhi
The CBI on Tuesday told a Delhi court that it is in the process of filing a fresh supplementary charge sheet in a case related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam against AAP leader Manish Sisodia and others.
The central probe agency made the submission in response to a query by Special Judge M K Nagpal on whether the matter should be fixed for arguments on the framing of charges. The CBI replied in the negative and said that the investigation was still ongoing. The agency said a report will be filed after the completion of the probe.
Advocate Nitesh Rana, appearing for Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramachandra Pillai, who is a co-accused in the case, also submitted that the matter cannot be placed for arguments on charge since the verification of the documents supplied to the accused by the CBI is still not complete.
The judge, meanwhile, allowed an application moved by Sisodia, who was produced in the court, to release money from his MLA fund for developmental work in his constituency Patparganj.
The application was not opposed by the CBI.
According to the CBI, Pillai was a close associate of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K Kavitha. Kavita is the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and was questioned by the probe agency in connection with the case.
The agency has alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 and undue favours were extended to licence holders.
The Delhi government implemented the excise policy on November 17, 2021.
But it was withdrawn by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in July 2022 after a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe was recommended by the Delhi Lieutenant Governor into “violation of norms and lapses” amid allegations of corruption.
Sisodia, who was the excise minister at that time, was arrested in February this year.
