Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday said that AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the probe into his excise duty policy. Sisodia raised concerns about the summoning of Pathak, who is also AAP’s Delhi Municipal Corporation election in-charge, and wondered if the agency was targeting the MCD polls. ED today convened a probe into AAP’s MCD in-charge of Durgesh Pathak. What does our MCD survey have to do with Delhi Government’s Excise Policy? Is their target liquor policy or MCD survey?” Sisodia tweeted in Hindi. There is no official confirmation of the summons from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) yet.
The Enforcement Directorate conducted raids at several locations across the country last week in connection with the Delhi Consumption Policy 2021-22 after taking over the case from the CBI, which had named Sisodia as an accused in its FIR. Sisodia is under scrutiny for alleged procedural lapses that gave undue advantage to the 2021-22 liquor licensee bidding process. The Delhi Chief Secretary’s report found prima facie violations of the GNCTD Act, 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR) 1993, Delhi Excise Act, 2009 and Delhi Excise Rules, 2010 in the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy for 2021-22 .
The Kejriwal government withdrew the policy in July after Delhi L-G VK Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities, but insisted the allegations were politically motivated. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he did not understand what the liquor scam was all about and advised the Center to do positive things for the country’s progress instead of “harassing” all the CBI and ED. If the Center is not doing any positive work and continues to worry everyone and scare the CBI and ED, how will the country progress?” he asked at a press conference.
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