The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate have made one arrest each — a former auditor of BRS MLC K Kavitha and a Punjab-based businessman — in cases related to alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy, officials said here on Wednesday.
The case, in which Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Siodia is an accused, saw a fresh turn with the CBI recommending registration of a separate case against him for allegedly using a department under the Delhi government for collecting “political intelligence”.
The CBI placed Butchibabu Gorantla, former chartered accountant of Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, under arrest on Tuesday night after he was called for questioning to the agency headquarters. The agency claimed that he was evasive and was not cooperating with investigators.
The ED, probing the money laundering charges linked to the matter, arrested Gautam Malhotra, businessman son of former SAD MLA and liquor baron Deep Malhotra, from Punjab. He was taken into custody in the money laundering case of the ED on Tuesday night.
The Delhi excise policy for 2021-22 was scrapped in August last year and the Delhi lieutenant governor later asked the CBI to probe the alleged irregularities. Both the agencies registered separate cases with Sisodia being the accused number one.
Sisodia’s troubles may also grow as the CBI found in a preliminary enquiry that the feedback unit (FBU) set up by the Delhi government to check corruption allegedly collected “political intelligence”. The CBI has recommended that an FIR be registered against the deputy chief minister.
About the ED arrest, officials said Malhotra is the promoter of the Oasis group of Punjab and he was taken into custody under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (