Excise policy 'scam': ED to question Delhi minister satyendar jain in Tihar jail on Sept 16

New Delhi, Sep 15: The Enforcement Directorate has obtained permission from a local court to question jailed Delhi minister Satyendar Jain in connection with a money laundering probe linked to the excise policy 'scam' case, official sources said Thursday.

The federal agency is expected to grill Jain on Friday in the Tihar jail where he is lodged for over three months now after the ED arrested him on May 30 in another money laundering case linked to alleged hawala dealings.

The agency has been authorised to question 57-year-old Jain in the latest case on September 16, 22 and 23, the sources said. Jain, a minister without portfolio in the AAP-led Delhi government, had held health and power portfolios before he was taken into custody by the ED.

The sources said the agency sought and obtained permission from a local court to record the statement of Jain in connection with the cabinet approvals given by the Aaam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for implementing the new excise policy. The ED case of money laundering in the excise policy stems from a CBI FIR in which Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and some bureaucrats have been named as accused.

The excise policy has been rolled back now. The CBI had conducted raids in the case on August 19, covering the Delhi residences of Sisodia (50), IAS officer and former Delhi excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, and 19 other locations across seven states and Union territories.

Sisodia holds multiple portfolios in the Arvind Kejriwal government, including education and excise. The ED is probing if alleged irregularities were done in the formulation and execution of the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 brought out in November last year.

The scheme came under the scanner after Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the implementation of the excise policy. He had also suspended 11 excise officials in the matter. Sisodia too demanded a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the policy.

The CBI inquiry was recommended on the findings of the Delhi chief secretary's report filed in July showing prima facie violations of the GNCTD Act-1991, Transaction of Business Rules-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009 and Delhi Excise Rules-2010, officials had said.