Delhi excise case: CBI books ED assistant director in Rs 5 cr bribery scam

The CBI has registered an FIR against ED Assistant Director Pawan Khatri in connection with an alleged bribery of Rs 5 crore by liquor businessman Amandeep Dhall to evade action in the excise policy scam case, officials said.

Besides the two, the agency has also named Assistant General Manager of Air India Deepak Sangwan, CEO of Claridges Hotels and Resorts Vikramaditya, chartered accountant Praveen Kumar Vats and two others Nitesh Kohar, a clerk in the ED, and Dhall's father Birender Pal Singh, they said.

The CBI has conducted searches at six locations on the premises of the accused after the registration of the FIR, the officials said.

According to sources, neither of the accused ED officers were part of the excise scam case probe but during the searches, materials related to the case were recovered from them.

The central probe agency took over the case on a complaint from the Enforcement Directorate, which alleged that Singh had paid Rs 5 crore bribe to Vats in tranches of Rs 50 lakh from December 2022 onwards to help Dhall in the excise policy case.

The CBI has registered the case under IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

During the probe into the alleged excise scam, the officials said, the ED received information about massive bribe exchanges in the name of senior agency officers to influence the case.

Based on the information, the agency had conducted searches on July 4 at the premises of the accused and questioned the suspects, which prima facie suggested bribery and corruption by the accused.

The ED searches also resulted in the recovery of Rs 2.19 crore cash (of the total Rs 5 crore) from the premises of Vats and 99 pages of a supplementary complaint filed by it on January 6 in the scam case from Sangwan's premises.

The agency also found the scam case-related documents from the premises of its Assistant Director Khatri, which indicated that he was taking undue interest in the case, the CBI FIR alleged.

The ED, in its initial probe, found that the bribery case started rolling when Amandeep Dhall approached Vikramaditya, CEO of Claridges Hotels and Resorts, seeking help in the excise scam case probed by the anti-money laundering agency, the FIR alleged, adding Vikramaditya introduced him to Vats.

"Praveen Vats informed him (Vikramaditya) that after deducting expenses with ED officials and other expenses, they (Praveen Vats and him) will divide the remaining amount equally. Amandeep Dhall paid the amount of Rs 3 crore to Praveen Vats. After that, in March 2023, Birender Pal Singh informed him that they had paid Rs 5 crore to Praveen Vats," it added.

Vats then tapped an assistant general manager in Air India, Deepak Sangwan, who said he could help Dhall using his contacts in the ED. Sangwan allegedly introduced the chartered account to Khatri.

The chartered accountant allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to Sangwan and Khatri at a parking place behind the ITC Hotel in Vasant Vihar locality in the middle of December 2022, the officials said.

Sangwan had also allegedly demanded Rs two crore for getting Dhall's name cleared from the list of accused, but the liquor businessman was arrested on March 1.