The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a supplementary chargesheet against five people, including Chariot Productions Media Pvt. Ltd director Rajesh Joshi and an Aaam Aadmi Party volunteer, in the Delhi excise policy scam case, officials said on Thursday.
This is the second supplementary charge sheet in the case in which former deputy chief minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia is also an accused.
The chargesheet, filed before a special court recently, focuses on the alleged diversion of Rs 44.54 crore of illicit funds, generated through the policy's formulation for favouring some liquor businessmen, to the AAP's campaign for the 2022 Goa assembly election, the officials said.
The party had denied any corruption in formulating and implementing the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22, which the Delhi government later scrapped.
In its supplementary charge sheet, the Central Bureau of Investigation has named Joshi, his employees Damodar Prasad Sharma and Prince Kumar, the creative head and production controller of India Ahead News Arvind Kumar Singh, and AAP volunteer Chanpreet Singh Rayat, the officials said.
Singh and Rayat were arrested by the CBI in May, while Joshi was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on February 8 and was given bail by a special court in Delhi on May 6.
"During further investigation, the alleged role of the said accused was found in respect of transfer of ill-gotten money amounting to Rs 44.54 crore (approx) to Goa through the hawala channel," a CBI spokesperson said.
The CBI has alleged that Singh had transferred funds through hawala channels to Chariot Media that was handling the AAP's publicity campaign during the Goa elections, the officials said.
During the probe, the CBI found WhatsApp chats and records of hawala operators, which showed that Singh was allegedly instrumental in the hawala transfers between June 2021 and January 2022 to Chariot Media, they said.
The officials said that Chariot Media was handling the outdoor advertisement campaign for the AAP during the elections.
The federal agency has alleged that Rayat, who is based in Delhi, was collecting money from "angadias" (hawala operators) and distributing it further for expenses incurred by the party during its campaign for the Goa polls.
Rayat allegedly handled a portion of hawala funds for distribution, the officials said, adding that he was one of the several persons authorised to collect money from Hawala operators and distribute it for campaign purposes.
The Goa assembly polls were held on February 14 last year.
In November last year, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against eight accused, including Sisodia, who is in judicial custody following denial of bail by courts, officials of the excise department and private persons.
The agency had also filed a supplementary charge sheet in April against Sisodia, India Ahead News executive Arjun Pandey, middleman Butchi Babu and liquor businessman Amandeep Dhal.
The charge sheets are an outcome of a probe by the agency after the registration of an FIR against Sisodia, officials of the excise department, beneficiary licensees of the policy, and their associates on August 17 last year for alleged irregularities in framing and implementation of the excise policy.
"It was further alleged that irregularities were committed, including modifications in the excise policy, extending undue favours to the licensees, waiver/reduction in licence fee, extension of L-1 license without approval etc," the spokesperson said.
"It was also alleged that illegal gains on the count of these acts were diverted to concerned public servants by private parties by making false entries in their books of accounts," the official said.
It is alleged that some loopholes and lacunae were intentionally left or created in the policy, which were meant to be utilised or exploited later.
The CBI has alleged that kickbacks of around Rs 90-100 crore were paid in advance to some politicians of the ruling AAP in Delhi and other public servants by some persons in the liquor business from South India through co-accused Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally and Dinesh Arora.
The agency has alleged that these kickbacks are found to have been returned to them subsequently out of the profit margins of wholesalers holding L-1 licenses through different modes, like issuance of excess credit notes, bank transfers, and outstanding amounts left in accounts of the companies controlled, by some conspirators from the "South lobby".
The CBI has alleged a cartel was formed between three components of the said policy -- liquor manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers -- by violating provisions and against the spirit of the policy.
All the conspirators allegedly played active roles in achieving the illegal objectives of the said criminal conspiracy. It resulted in huge losses to the exchequer and undue pecuniary benefits to the public servants and other accused involved in the conspiracy, the CBI alleged.
