CBI arrests AAP worker Charanpreet Singh in Delhi excise policy case

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested AAP worker Charanpreet Singh in connection with the Delhi excise policy case, officials said on Tuesday.

The federal agency alleged that Charanpreet Singh, who is based in Delhi, was collecting money from Angadias (hawala operators) and distributing it further for expenses incurred during the 2022 Goa Assembly election campaign of the party. Last week, the CBI had arrested a media executive, Arvind Kumar Singh, for allegedly transferring Rs 17 crore to Chariot Media, which handled outdoor advertising for the AAP during the Goa polls.

Charanpreet Singh allegedly handled a portion of this Rs 17 crore 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 CBI FIR has alleged that the Delhi Excise Policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the ruling AAP. The policy was later scrapped. "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, the extension of L-1 license without approval etc.

"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," a CBI spokesperson had said after the FIR was filed on August 17 last year. Some loopholes and lacunae were intentionally left or created in the policy and the same were meant to be utilised or exploited later on, according to the CBI. The agency has alleged that kickbacks of around Rs 90-100 crore were paid in advance to some AAP leaders in Delhi and public servants by some people in the liquor business from south India through co-accused Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally and Dinesh Arora.

The AAP on Tuesday accused ED and CBI officials of threatening witnesses to give statements in the Delhi excise policy case and claimed it has proof of how "this conspiracy" is being hatched against the party and its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal.

Addressing a press conference here, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh alleged that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of India (CBI) were taking statements in the case "at gunpoint".

"There are two or three officials in ED and CBI who are working at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I want to tell them to do their work with honesty," the Rajya Sabha MP said