Delhi excise policy scam: ED attaches ₹52-cr worth assets of arrested AAP leader Manish Sisodia, wife

The Enforcement Directorate has informed that they have attached ₹52 crore worth of assets to former Delhi deputy chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia his wife and some other accused in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case.

The development comes a day after Manish Sisodia moved Supreme Court for bail in CBI and ED cases related to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Excise Policy case.

ED informed that a provisional order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to attach among others immovable properties (worth ₹7.29 crore) comprising two assets of Manish Sisodia and his wife Seema Sisodia, land/flat of another accused Rajesh Joshi (director of Chariot Productions Media Pvt Ltd.) and land/flat of Gautam Malhotra.

The attachment also includes movable assets worth ₹44.29 crore including bank balances of Manish Sisodia worth ₹11.49 lakh, Brindco Sales Pvt. Ltd. (amount of ₹16.45 crore) and others, the agency said in a statement.

The total attachment value is ₹52.24 crore, the ED said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 9 arrested former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in the liquor policy case, after hours of questioning at Tihar Jail. Sisodia, a former deputy chief minister of Delhi, was arrested by the ED in this case in March and he is currently in judicial custody.

Sisodia was arrested by the CBI earlier in its ongoing investigation of a case related to alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD).

It is alleged by the ED and the CBI that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.

The policy was subsequently scrapped and the Delhi lieutenant governor recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the PMLA.