Excise case: Delhi Court sends Director of Buddy Retail Pvt Ltd Amit Arora to 7 days' ED remand

Delhi court on Wednesday sent Buddy Retail Pvt Ltd's Director Amit Arora to ED remand in connection with the alleged Delhi Excise Policy scam money Laundering case.

The Rouse Avenue Court on Wednesday sent Amit Arora, Director of Buddy Retail Pvt Ltd, to the Enforcement Directorate's remand in connection with the alleged Delhi Excise Policy scam money Laundering case. On Wednesday, Special Judge MK Nagpal decided to send Amit Arora to ED remand until December 7, 2022.

While seeking remand ED's special public Prosecutor Naveen Kumar Matta submitted that the large-scale destruction of digital evidence done by the accused derailed the investigation. He is the manufacturer, retailer and wholesaler. He had one licence of L1 (Wholesale) and two additional licences. Advocate Ajit Singh opposed the ED's remand application and said he has joined the probe 22 times. Why do they need police remand? They have questioned me 22 times. Nothing is left to ask, said the Lawyer.

"I have been called at 5 pm and joined at 6 a lot of times. I have not done anything with the phones. The CBI took my phone during the investigation," Amit Arora submits personally." My company's name is not even there. My market share is 0.001 per cent. My company is not there of the major stakeholders," he added. Arora's name is mentioned in both the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation cases as accused along with Dinesh Arora, another director of Buddy Retail Pvt Ltd. Other accused named are Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar.

Manoj Rai, a former employee of Pernod Ricard; Amandeep Dhal, director of Brindco Sales; authorised signatories of Mahadev Liquors Sunny Marwah, Arun Ramchandra Pillai and Arjun Pandey are some more accused in the case. The agency's move comes days after the agency filed its first chargesheet before a court in the national capital in the Delhi excise policy money laundering case naming liquor businessman Sameer Mahandru as one of the accused.

The agency said it has so far undertaken 169 search operations in this case, filed after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR which was registered on the recommendation of the Delhi lieutenant governor. The CBI inquiry was recommended on the findings of the Delhi chief secretary's report filed in July showing prima facie violations of the GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR)-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009, and Delhi Excise Rules-2010, officials had said.

A total of five people have been arrested by the ED in this case till now, excluding Arora. The Enforcement Directorate arrested Mahandru on September 27 following his questioning. In October, the ED had raided nearly three dozen locations in Delhi and Punjab following the arrest of Sameer Mahendru, Managing Director of Delhi's Jor Bagh-based liquor distributor Indospirit Group, in the case.

The CBI too filed its first charge sheet in the case early this week. The ED and the CBI had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority's approval. The beneficiaries diverted "illegal" gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection.

ED tells the court that, on the basis of the investigation conducted so far indicating that Amit Arora is actually involved in the activity connected to the acquisition, possession and use of proceeds of crime and therefore, Amit Arora is guilty of the offence of money laundering. Further, he has not cooperated in the investigation by withholding information which is in his exclusive knowledge and extremely relevant to the investigation. Accordingly, Amit Arora is arrested under the provisions of Section 19 of the PMLA, 2002 at 10:00 pm on 29.11.2022 at the office of this Directorate, New Delhi in the interest of investigation and after following due process of law.

ED while seeking remand also submitted that, huge digital/physical records have been seized during 171 search operations conducted to date by this Directorate under Section 17 of PMLA, 2002. The same needs to be confronted with the arrestee Amit Arora. He needs to be interrogated with respect to other associates/entities involved in the Cartelization and Kickbacks to the Public Servants. (ANI)

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