CBI raids residence of Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia over excise policy; Kejriwal says 'reward' for good performance

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday raided over 10 locations in NCR, including the residence of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in the excise policy case.

Sisodia, in a tweet, confirmed the search by CBI and said that it is very unfortunate that those who do good work in our country are harassed like this. He refuted all allegations and said that he will cooperate with the investigation.

The CBI has registered an FIR in connection with alleged irregularities in formulation and execution of the Delhi Excise Policy brought in November last year, PTI reported quoting officials.

Why CBI raided Sisodia's house: Last month Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena had recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in implementation of Excise Policy 2o21-22. He had also suspended 11 excise officials in the matter.

The CBI inquiry was recommended on Delhi Chief Secretary's report filed in July, showing prima facie violations of the GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR)-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009, and Delhi Excise Rules-2010.

The CBI officials said there were "deliberate and gross procedural lapses" to provide post-tender "undue benefits to liquor licensees", reported PTI.

'Reward for good work': Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the CBI raid at Sisodia's house was the result of their good performance which is being appreciated globally.

"The day Delhi's education model was appreciated and Manish Sisodia's photo appeared on the front page of America's biggest newspaper NYT, the Centre sent the CBI at the residence of Manish. CBI is welcome. Will extend full cooperation. Earlier also there were raids and probes. Nothing came out. Nothing will come out now also," Kejriwal tweeted.

Delhi excise policy: After a lot of controversy, the Delhi government has decided to discontinue the new excise policy and has brought back the old liquor policy.

• The excise policy under which the private liquor vends are currently being run in the city comes to an end on August 31, nine months after it was implemented. Starting September 1, only Delhi government corporations will be allowed to run retail liquor shops.
• Under the new policy, the government had issued liquor licences for 849 vends across the city. Only 468 of these were running.
• Earlier, the government corporations ran 475 liquor stores out of a total 864 in Delhi under the old excise policy regime. There were 389 private stores.