Delhi Excise policy: ED arrests two persons

The ED has arrested two company executives linked to liquor trade in the money laundering investigation being conducted by it into the now-scrapped Delhi Excise policy case, official sources said Thursday.

Benoy Babu of Pernod Ricard and Sharath Reddy of Aurobindo Pharma have been arrested under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted multiple raids in this case so far. In September, it arrested Sameer Mahandru, managing director of a liquor manufacturing company Indospirit.

The agency early this month raided the premises of a PA of Delhi Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and later questioned him at its office in Delhi.

The money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR that had named Sisodia as an accused among others. The CBI had raided the premises of the deputy chief minister and some Delhi government bureaucrats after filing the case.

The excise scheme came under the scanner after the Delhi LG recommended a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the implementation of Delhi’s Excise Policy 2021-22. The LG had also suspended 11 excise officials.