New Delhi: The CBI on Saturday recorded the statements of three of the accused as it began questioning in the alleged corruption case related to the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy, officials said.
The agency is also examining the documents seized during raids at 31 places including the residence of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday, they said. The FIR names 15, including Sisodia.
The three accused were called to CBI headquarters where their statements were recorded and they were confronted with some documents of financial transactions recovered during the searches, they said, without elaborating.
The officials said once the process of examining the documents and electronic gadgets as well as the bank transactions is completed, summonses will be issued to other accused.
The CBI FIR, which was registered before a special court on Wednesday, has also been shared with the Enforcement Directorate, a financial probe agency, which will look into the allegations of money laundering.
The agency on Friday carried out searches at 31 places which included premises related to Sisodia as well as some bureaucrats and businessmen.
Under the CBI probe are at least two payments in crores allegedly made to "close associates" of Sisodia by Sameer Mahendru, the owner of Indospirits, who was one of the liquor traders actively involved in alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy.
The FIR alleged Sisodia's "close associates" — Amit Arora, director of Buddy Retail Pvt. Limited in Gurugram, Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey — were "actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees" to the accused public servants.
The search operations on Friday continued for nearly 15 hours with the CBI team
leaving Sisodia's residence at around 11 pm.
The searches at the AAP leader's home, the residence of IAS officer and former excise commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, and 29 other places took place after the CBI registered an FIR for alleged corruption and bribery in the formulation and execution of the Delhi Excise Policy brought out last November, officials said.
The policy was withdrawn in July this year after Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena called for a CBI probe.