Businessman Dinesh Arora—who the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) found is a close aide of Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia—is set to turn into an approver in the Delhi liquor policy case. Arora voluntarily approached the Delhi Rouse Avenue court and said he will reveal all the truth about his role in the case.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is also an accused in the case.
Businessman Dinesh Arora was granted bail by a Delhi court last week. Today, the CBI filed a petition in a city court saying Arora would be their witness. The CBI has said the businessman cooperated with investigators and gave key information.
The Delhi government had come out with a new policy for selling liquor in the national capital. The Lieutenant Governor red-flagged it over alleged corruption and told the CBI to look into it.
The Arvind Kejriwal government cancelled the new policy and reverted to the old one.
The Delhi Chief Minister has said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government lost thousands of crores in precious revenue due to the L-G’s intervention that happened before the new policy could show results.
“The excise policy of the AAP government was supposed to generate revenue of ₹ 4,000-Rs 5,000 crore, but just two days before its implementation the L-G made many changes to it due to which 300-400 shops could not be opened. Their licence fees and revenue did not come. This is the reason behind less revenue," Kejriwal told reporters on October 31.
The CBI investigation into the liquor policy case started barely a few months before the Gujarat assembly elections are to be held.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has alleged that the Centre, with the L-G working as a proxy, wants to harm AAP’s campaign in Gujarat, the home state of PM Narendra Modi.
