The CBI has stated in its additional charge sheet that Manish Sisodia, a former deputy chief minister of Delhi, ‘planted’ created public sentiments in favour of the excise policy by obtaining positive comments from interns of the Delhi Minority Commission to provide reasons for the now-scrapped policy.
An expert group was formed by the Delhi government to provide suggestions for updating the excise policy. According to the agency’s charge sheet presented to the Special CBI court on April 25, when Sisodia became dissatisfied with the suggestions, he requested that the Dhawan Committee report be posted online to gauge public opinion.
The central agency said in the supplemental charge sheet that Sisodia and the other defendants intended to “dishonestly and fraudulently” create the conditions via “fabricated public opinions” for the inclusion of elements in the policy that aligned with his “pre-conceived” notions.
According to the charge sheet, Sisodia “got fabricated certain emails through Zakir Khan, chairperson of Delhi Minorities Commission, which were sent by interns of Delhi Minorities Commission on the dedicated email ID of the excise department…with a copy to…accused Manish Sisodia,” according to the charge sheet accessed by the PTI.
It was claimed that Sisodia gave Khan “a handwritten note” containing instructions to obtain multiple emails on “said lines” on the email address provided for gathering public opinion, along with the suggestions contained in the emails, including the allocation of retail liquor licences through the auction of zones, reduction of excise and VAT as well as enhancement of licence fee and increase in the number of liquor vends.
It said that “this establishes that the Accused Manish Sisodia was working with preconceived ideas for the formulation of the Excise Policy and was sowing manufactured public opinion in support of the same.”
The agency has mainly relied on the testimony of government representatives, including former excise commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, who was charged in the FIR but against whom the CBI could not establish any proof of criminal misbehaviour and who was simply cited as a witness.
According to the agency, the comments he made to the magistrate as required under Section 164 of the CrPC are “relevant” in demonstrating the allegations made against Sisodia and the other accused. According to the CBI, Sisodia acquired copies of the forged emails from the Excise Department via his secretary, C. Arvind, which were submitted by interns of the Delhi Minorities Commission.
Many of the feedback he got on his emails weren’t included in the department’s summary, so he told Excise Commissioner Rahul Singh to add them as well. By fabricating these public views, Manish Sisodia “wanted to prepare grounds through dishonest and fraudulent means for creating ground for incorporating provisions in the Excise Policy as per his pre-conceived ideas,” according to the charge sheet.
After that, Sisodia gave Singh the order to draught a cabinet note along the same lines as the summary and present it before the Council of Ministers Meeting on January 28, 2021. The charge document claims that Sisodia sent Singh a draught of the cabinet note over WhatsApp via Secretary.
The excise department also included legal views from three legal heavyweights — former CJIs Ranjan Gogoi and KG Balakrishnan, as well as former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi — who urged maintaining the status quo in the draught note it produced in response to Sisodia’s directives. These viewpoints were collected by the Delhi ALCOBEV Retailers Association and included in the public discourse.
At the council meeting on January 28, 2021, the cabinet note was not brought up for discussion, but Sisodia lashed out at Singh for include the opinion of legal professionals. The CBI claims that the aforementioned file is still “untraceable” and that Sisodia “destroyed/caused disappearance” of the note file since it did not fit their “ulterior” plans.
The agency made use of digital forensic data collected from the phones of the participating government employees. The CBI said that Sisodia “suppressed the existence/submission” at the Cabinet meeting on January 28, 2021, “with mala fide intention.” Later, on February 5, 2021, Sisodia presented a new note to the Cabinet omitting the legal opinions, and it was resolved to create a Group of Ministers under his leadership to develop the excise policy.
In November 2021, the policy was established, however it was subsequently abandoned due to charges of corruption. The AAP vehemently disputes the claim that the strategy benefitted certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it.
A CBI spokesperson had stated after the FIR was filed on August 17, 2022: “It was further alleged that irregularities were committed, including modifications in Excise Policy, extending undue favours to the licensees, waiver/reduction in licence fee, the extension of L-1 licence without approval, etc. “It was also alleged that illegal gains on the count of these acts were diverted to concerned public servants by private parties by making false entries in their books of accounts.
