New Delhi, May 15 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged in its supplementary chargesheet filed in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy Scam that former Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, "destroyed" a draft Cabinet Note which was prepared by the Excise Department and put up before the Council of Ministers in the meeting which was held on January 28, 2021.
In the draft Cabinet Note, the legal opinions of Ranjan Gogoi and K.G. Balakrishnan, both former Chief Justice of India (CJI), Mukul Rohtagi, senior advocate and former attorney general of India (AGI) and others were obtained.
The CBI has claimed that their legal opinions were mostly in favour of maintaining the status-quo (which means the policy which was being brought should be stalled).
On January 28, 2021, a file containing the cabinet note was taken to the camp office (official residence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal).
Here, the Delhi Excise Department officials handed over the file to Pravesh Jha, the additional secretary to Kejriwal.
K.P. Gupta, who was looking after the work of Secretary of Finance, signed the file, marked it to Sisodia and gave it back to Jha.
After that, Sisodia was given the file by Jha to seek the approval of the chief minister before placing it before the meeting of the Council of Ministers. However, this file was not considered by the ministers in the meeting.
"Sisodia called Rahul Singh, the Delhi Excise Commissioner, and expressed his anger for incorporating the comments of the legal experts in the Cabinet Note. Sisodia did not return the file containing the Cabinet Note to Delhi Excise Department or Excise officials. Later, when the CBI inquired about the Cabinet Note file, the Finance Department informed that the file was missing," a source said, quoting the chargesheet.
The CBI has also alleged that later, their digital evidence corroborated that the file was submitted to Sisodia by the Excise Department.
The CBI said that later on February 2, 2021, Sisodia made a fresh note, but there, he did not make any reference to the previous cabinet note.
The CBI has alleged that this was done with the intention of suppressing the submission of the Cabinet Note.
The CBI has alleged that Sisodia then directed the new excise commissioner to prepare a fresh cabinet note without making any reference to the legal opinions of the former chief justice of India. And on February 5, 2021, a fresh cabinet note was put up before the meeting of the council of ministers.
"This clearly indicates that Sisodia wanted to help the accused involved in the case and was working with a pre-conceived idea to formulate the excise policy in a particular manner to suit the design of the co-accused and dishonestly did not put the original cabinet note in the cabinet meeting of January 28, 2021, and also destroyed the file of the cabinet note because it was not suiting their ulterior designs," said the source.
This was the second supplementary chargesheet by the CBI in the matter.
The Indian Army has recently cleared 108 vacancies for women officers to take command of independent units in the Corps of Engineers, Ordinance, EME and other branches following which Col Geeta Rana took charge of the EME unit. Women officers will now be able to command many different units of the army.
Describing women as the ones who decide the direction of the nation, the Prime Minister said in his video that the strength, education and skills of a daughter not only decide the direction of the family but also of society and the nation.
The gold biscuits were being smuggled from Manipur to the national capital via Guwahati. On Tuesday, 320 gm gold was seized by the railway police from the same railway station.
The police have arrested six persons in this connection, out of whom two are residents of Liluah in Howrah district, two are from Maharashtra and one from Gujarat. The police suspect that besides running the fake call centre, the arrested persons were also involved in illegal hawala transactions.
A forensic science lab team also reached the spot and inspected the suitcase and the spot where the body was found. The hands and the feet of the victim were tied with a rope, a police officer said, not ruling out the possibility of foul play in the case.
The officials said that some dreaded criminals were lodged in the same ward, adding that Sisodia has not raised any complaint in food or other things so far. Sisodia, who was arrested on February 26 in the Delhi excise policy case, was lodged in the cell on Monday after due formalities which included some medical tests.
