In a massive development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during Arvind Kejriwal's remand hearing informed the that it had summoned multiple senior IAS officers from Punjab. As per reports, the ED had summoned three Punjab officials including two IAS officers, KAP Sinha and Varun Roojam, and additional excise commissioner Naresh Dubey. Interestingly, the ED carried out raids on Wednesday in Punjab on 26 locations including Varun Roojam's house in the Guava Orchard Compensation Scam Case. Varun Roojam is the Punjab Excise Commissioner. Apart from Roojam, ED also raided the house of Ferozepur's Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Dhiman in the alleged Guava Orchard Scam case. While the liquor policy and guava orchard compensation scam case are different from each other, ED's mention of Punjab and its latest crackdown hints that the Central Agency is shifting its focus to Punjab as well.
What is Punjab's connection to Delhi's liquor policy case?
Going by ED's submission to the court, the central agency claimed that some wholesalers in Delhi were arm-twisted by the senior excise officials in Punjab after the demand for bribes in Delhi was refused.
A newswire quoted ED's remand application which it submitted in court on Thursday in which it stated that during Arvind Kejriwal's six-day custody, summons were issued to senior excise officials in Punjab who were involved in the arm-twisting of certain wholesalers of Delhi when they refused to pay the demanded bribes in Delhi.
"The factories of these wholesalers were either shut down or not allowed to dispatch their goods in Punjab by Punjab excise officials when the demands of bribes were not fulfilled in Delhi. However, they could not appear on these summons due to hooch tragedy in Sangrur, Punjab, and sought some time," said ED in its submission.
Talking about the three IAS officers of Punjab, it is alleged that all three officials were involved in devising Punjab's excise policy in 2022.
For the unversed, in 2022, the ED conducted searches at the residences of Roojam in Sector 20, Chandigarh, and joint commissioner (excise) Naresh Dubey in Panchkula. Previously, the trio had also been summoned by the ED in relation to the same case in 2022.
Quoting ED's application, the newswire further stated that the Central agency claimed that Roojam and Dubey were present at the residence of Manish Sisodia, who is also under arrest in connection with the Delhi excise case, when the Punjab policy was formulated.
"The trio faces scrutiny following the statement of Deepa Chadha, who alleged that she was pressurised by Punjab authorities to surrender her L1 licence in Delhi by disrupting the operations of her Punjab-based distillery," said a source as quoted by a newswire.
It is pertinent to mention here that BJP's Punjab unit Chief Sunil Jakhar has already requested the ECI to probe the Punjab Excise Policy.
(INPUTS: IANS)