CBI to seeks further custody of Manish Sisodia in Delhi excise policy scam

According to sources in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) the agency would seek further custodial remand of Delhi's former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who was arrested in connection with the Delhi excise policy scam.

Sisodia will be produced before a Special CBI court after the expiry of his five-day judicial custody. The CBI sources claimed that Sisodia was still evasive and was not talking. The sources said that in January they seized a computer from the office of Sisodia. Later it was learnt that files and other data were deleted from the computer. The CBI then sent the computer to the Forensic Science Laboratory to retrieve the deleted files. Now the FSL has given them a report and retrieved the whole file deleted from the computer.

Apart from this Sisodia was also confronted with the statement of an IAS official who had turned against him and got his statement recorded under section 164 of the CrPC.

A day after his arrest Sisodia resigned from his post. Satyender Jain, who is currently in jail and was Delhi's health minister, also resigned along with him.

The CBI has alleged in the remand paper that Sisodia played a crucial role in the excise policy scam. "The report of the expert committee in connection with the excise policy was changed by Sisodia to benefit a few liquor businessmen. This was also done through accused Vijay Nair, they had collected Rs 100 crore from South Group being controlled by a South India based liquor businessman and politician who would benefit through the policy. A payment of Rs 100 crore was done through the hawala channel, which we have traced."

"We have learnt that between September and October 2021, Sisodia changed around 14 cell phones and 4 SIM cards. The purpose of changing the cell phones was to destroy the evidence. Devender Sharma, the secretary of Sisodia, had provided all these mobile phones, we have his statement in this respect," said the source.

The CBI has already filed a chargesheet against seven persons in the matter and is all set to file a supplementary chargesheet in the matter.

--IANS

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