Excise policy: Delhi court reserves order on Dinesh Arora's plea to turn approver

A Delhi court will pronounce on November 16 its order on whether to allow businessman Dinesh Arora, an accused in the excise policy scam case also involving Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, to turn approver, his lawyer said on Monday.

Special Judge M K Nagpal reserved the order after hearing arguments in an in-chamber proceeding, advocate R K Thakur said.

During the proceedings, the court posed various queries to the CBI as well Arora.

The CBI had on November 7 moved an application before the court seeking its permission to turn Arora an approver in the case.

Following the application, Arora also moved a plea seeking pardon in the case, saying he was ready to make ''true disclosure voluntarily''.

Arora has already recorded his statement under section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code (confessional statement before a magistrate) in the matter.

The CBI has accused Arora of receiving a bribe of Rs 1 crore from a liquor manufacturer on behalf of Sisodia.

Responding to a query by the court, Arora had made it clear ''there is no pressure or threats by the CBI or anyone else''. The court had earlier granted anticipatory bail to Arora after the probe agency did not oppose his plea.

The CBI, in its reply to the anticipatory bail application, had stated that Arora joined the investigation and disclosed certain facts which were vital for the probe and hence, ''the CBI has no objection if the anticipatory bail is granted to the applicant by this court''.

The CBI, after registering a case in August this year against 15 people, had carried out searches at various places including related to Arora. He was questioned eight times before he decided to turn an approver.

Besides Sisodia, who holds the excise portfolio, the CBI has named the then excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, the then deputy excise commissioner Anand Kumar Tiwari, assistant excise commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar, nine businessmen and two companies as accused in the case.

The agency has alleged that Sisodia and other accused public servants recommended and took decisions pertaining to the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 without the approval of competent authority with ''an intention to extend undue favours to the licensees post tender''.

The agency alleged Amit Arora, Director of Buddy Retail Pvt Limited in Gurgaon, Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey are ''close associates'' of Sisodia and were ''actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees'' for the accused public servants.

The CBI has alleged that Radha Industries managed by Dinesh Arora received Rs 1 crore from Sameer Mahendru of Indospirits.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)