The Delhi government has decided to withdraw the new Excise Policy for the time being and directed the sale of liquor through government-run vends, after multiple enquiries, including those by the CBI and Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police, into charges of “undue financial favours to liquor licensees” and other “major decisions/actions in violation of statutory provisions… that had huge financial implications.”

Targeting the BJP, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia alleged they were “running an illegal liquor business in Gujarat” and they wanted to do it now in Delhi also.

The deputy chief minister, who also holds the excise portfolio, said in a press briefing that the Delhi chief secretary has been directed to ensure that liquor is now sold through government shops only and there is no chaos.

He also alleged the BJP was using agencies like the CBI and ED to threaten liquor licensees, many of whom have now shut shops, and the excise officials who were scared to start open auctions of retail licences.

“They want to create a shortage of liquor so that they can run an illegal liquor trade in Delhi like they are doing in Gujarat. But we will not let this happen,” Sisodia said.

Under the new excise policy, nearly 468 liquor stores are running in Delhi at present.

The policy, that extended twice after April 30 for a two-month period each, will end on July 31.

The old liquor policy is likely to be back in force from August 1, 2022, sources said.

This newspaper was the first to report that the city government’s liquor policy “extended wrongful gains and favours to liquor wholesalers in Delhi… at the cost of state’s revenue.”

In a letter marked “Topmost Priority” to the state’s excise commissioner Krishna Mohan Uppu, Delhi finance secretary Ashish Chandra Verma on Friday said: “Reference is invited to the directions of Hon’ble Dy CM dated 28.07.2022 vide which it has, inter alia, been directed to revert to old regime of excise policy for a period of 6 months till a fresh Excise Policy is in place.” The letter further said,

“Considering that the timelines are very short, you, while taking other necessary actions in the matter, may coordinate immediately with the heads of the DSIIDC, DTTDC, DCCWS, DSCSC (all PSUs) to get the following information prepared latest by end of today (i.e., 29.09.2022) in the following format separately for all such four organizations.”

The information sought from the excise commissioner includes the name of old vend and its location, staff deployed in the previous regime, whether the premises where the vend was located were rented or owned by the public sector undertaking, and whether the premises were still vacant or occupied.

Copies of the finance minister’s letter have also been sent to the heads of the four PSUs, which were earlier engaged in running the liquor vends.

The Delhi government implemented a new excise policy on November 15, 2021, that withdrew the four PSUs from the liquor business and handed over the entire trade over to the private sector. Friday’s order rolled it back and directed the excise commissioner to bring back the PSUs into the liquor trade.

Sources said the new policy was scrapped to stonewall the probe and prevent action against Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia who was the head of the group of ministers that drafted it.

The new excise policy had generated protests from retailers, with 10 zonal retailers out of the total 32 zones surrendering or refusing to renew licenses accusing the government of favouring wholesalers.

BENGALURU: Terming the speed with which the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) prepared a source report, registered an FIR and conducted a search of a flat belonging to an engineer in 24 hours as “mockery of procedure”, the Karnataka High Court chided the ACB for throwing procedures and time required to follow them, to the wind. “It becomes a fit case, where this court cannot turn a blind eye to the plea of the petitioner for exercise of jurisdiction under Section 482 of the CrPC, and obliterate registration of crime against the petitioner. Failing which, it would become a classic illustration of a case becoming an abuse of the process of law and resulting in miscarriage of justice.

Above all, putting a premium on the action of the ACB, notwithstanding the fact that “the ACB blissfully ignored the ABC of procedure”, Justice M Nagaprasanna said, quashing the FIR and further proceedings against KR Kumar Naik, Executive Engineer, Operations and Maintenance Division, Bescom, Nelamangala. Naik’s counsel K Satish argued that the process initiated by the ACB is contrary to law, as no preliminary inquiry was conducted, no source report was prepared, and disproportionate assets shown in the ‘source report’ were zero.

Despite this, an FIR was registered, search was conducted and the petitioner was harassed. To counter this, ACB’s counsel defended the action of the investigating agency. The court said the report, in corruption parlance, is a source information report. It was generated in haste, the FIR was registered on March 16, 2022, and the source report was also done on the same day, in a jiffy.

The ACB, which performs a significant role in checking corruption among public servants, cannot indulge in such a casual act, the court added. A crime was registered against Naik under the Prevention of Corruption Act by ACB, a day after two travel bags and one carton, allegedly belonging to him, were found during a search on his neighbour Munavar Pasha’s flat. This was in connection with a disproportionate assets case registered against J Jnanendra Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Transport, on March 15, 2022, on the allegation that he possessed assets disproportionate to his known source of income.

RAIPUR: A first-ever no-confidence motion moved by the opposition against the Congress government-led by Bhupesh Baghel in Chhattisgarh was defeated by a voice-vote after over 13 hours of marathon debate that continued till the small hours of Thursday in the Assembly.

The motion came up with the 84-point charge sheet which was tabled by the leader of the opposition Dharampal Kaushik in the House. The discussion began with the BJP MLA Brijmohan Agrawal hitting out at the ruling Congress stating that neither the chief minister nor his cabinet colleagues have faith in each other in the government.

“A minister (T S Singhdeo) had himself expressed no confidence in the chief minister. Now even the people have lost trust in the government and the administration,” the BJP leader said.

During the stormy debate over the no-trust motion as many as 20 members participated with the opposition members attacking the Congress government over ‘infighting within Congress’, alleged deteriorating law and order situation, corruption and failure to live up to the poll promises.

Baghel while responding to the charges strongly countered the opposition. He eulogised the state government’s achievements during the three-and-a-half year rule and lashed out at the opposition (BJP) for allegedly “misusing” the Central agencies.

“Our government has raised the self regard with faith in oneself as Chhattisgarhiya and the people can now directly talk to the CM,” he said The Assembly election in Chhattisgarh is due next year.

KOLKATA: After recovering cash worth Rs 21.9 crore six days ago, the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday found Rs 27.9 crore and jewellery from another apartment in Belgharia near Kolkata owned by the model-cum-actor Arpita Mukherjee.

She is the close aide of arrested Trinamool heavyweight and Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, who was arrested in an alleged teacher recruitment scam in state schools.

The central agency, which is probing into the money trail in the recruitment scam, brought currency counting machines to assess the volume of cash, which is suspected to be proceeds of crime of the alleged irregularities.

The investigators took more than 12 hours to count the currency notes.

The officials of the investigating agency broke open the door of the apartment on Wednesday morning and started the search operation.

“We found cash in the apartment owned by Arpita. The recovery is followed by leads provided by Arpita during her interrogation,” said an ED official.

The investigators are still ascertaining the value of the gold jewellery, believed to be in kgs, they added.

The money and gold were found five days after the agency seized more than Rs 21 crore in cash, besides jewellery and foreign exchange from another flat of Mukherjee in south Kolkata’s Tollygunge area, following which she was arrested.

In all, nearly Rs 50 crore in cash has been seized so far, officials said.

ED officials on Wednesday conducted coordinated raids at various properties at Rajdanga in south Kolkata and Belgharia in the northern fringes of the city.

During questioning, Mukherjee informed the ED about those properties, officials said.

ED sleuths had to break open a door to get into the two flats in Belgharia’s Rathtala locality as the keys to open them could not be spotted, they said.

Several “vital” documents were also found in the flats during a search, the official said.

Chatterjee, a powerful minister in Mamata Banerjee’s government and the secretary-general of Trinamool Congress, was arrested on Saturday after the cash was found at Mukherjee’s Tollygunge flat.

The CBI, as directed by the Calcutta High Court, is probing the alleged irregularities committed in the recruitment of Group-C and D staff as well as teachers in government-sponsored and aided schools on recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC).

The ED is tracking the money trail in the scam.

Chatterjee was the education minister when the alleged irregularities took place.