Delhi excise scam: ED to probe its own officials

New Delhi: The AAP on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to shut down the Enforcement Directorate after the CBI booked an assistant director with the federal agency on bribery charges.

The CBI registered an FIR against ED Assistant Director Pawan Khatri in connection with an alleged bribery of Rs 5 crore by liquor businessman Amandeep Dhall to evade action in the Delhi excise policy scam case, officials said.

Addressing a press conference, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been investigating the “so-called” excise policy scam for the last one year. “ED has been changing its statements over the scam. Sometimes, they say it is a scam of Rs 100 crore, and sometimes they say it is a scam of Rs 1,000 crore. They have failed to find any money trail in the case,” he alleged.

“ED is an ‘extortion’ department. In the name of investigation of the alleged excise scam, they are extorting money. This department is used for breaking MLAs in various parts of the country. This is a department of hooliganism. The Supreme Court should immediately close it. In the investigation of a scam, a scam is happening,” he said. Singh also demanded a probe into who all got the share of the bribe amount. “There should be an investigation on who all got a share of this money. They have license from the government to carry out extortion.

The ED is expected to press money laundering charges against its two officers and some private individuals who were recently booked by the CBI in a bribery case linked to an accused arrested in the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam, official sources said on Tuesday.

ED officials Pawan Khatri and Nitesh Kohar, chartered accountant (CA) Praveen Kumar Vats, Air India assistant general manager (AGM) Deepak Sangwan, CEO of Claridges Hotels and Resorts Vikramaditya, Amandeep Dhall, owner of liquor company Brindco Sales who was arrested in the Delhi liquor policy case, and his father Birender Pal Singh, have been named as accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its FIR filed on August 25.

The CBI had acted on a complaint sent by the ED on August 8. While Khatri is an Assistant Director rank officer of the ED working in its Delhi zone office, Kohar is an upper division clerk (UDC) with the federal anti-money laundering agency at its headquarters here and both were not part of the team probing the Delhi liquor policy case. Amandeep Dhall was arrested by the ED on March 1 in the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam. It is alleged that Dhall’s father paid Rs 5 crore “bribe” to Vats in tranches of Rs 50 lakh from December 2022 onwards so that Amandeep Dhall is “protected from arrest and being made an accused” in the Delhi excise policy case.