The accused named in the FIR have been identified as Pawan Khatri, Assistant Director, ED; Nitesh Kohar, Upper Division Clerk; Deepak Sangwan, Employee of Air India; Amandeep Singh Dhall; Birender Pal Singh; Praveen Kumar Vats, Chartered Accountant; Vikramaditya, CEO of Claridges Hotels and Resorts.

ED arrested Dhall in connection with alleged irregularities in the excise policy on March 1. 

During the course of the investigation of the Delhi Liquor Scam case, it was learnt that a group of certain persons were involved in the activity of taking money in the name of some Senior ED officials.

“From the statements of various persons recorded under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, it was prima facie revealed that Aman Dhall (accused in the Delhi Liqour scam case and arrested by both ED and CBI) and Birender Pal Singh (father of Aman Dhall) had given ₹5 crore (initially ₹3 crore in the month of December 2022-January 2023 and then ₹2 crore) to one Praveen Vats (Chartered Accountant) for arranging help in ED in respect of the ongoing investigation in liquor case against Aman Dhall,” an official statement said.

According to the FIR, “Sangwan, who works as an Assistant General Manager in Air India, had assured Vats that he can arrange help for Dhall in ED’s liquor scam case (by protecting him from arrest) in lieu of some amount of money. 

Sangwan introduced him to Khatri in December 2022. On the basis of assurance of Sangwan, Vats had taken ₹3 crore from Dhall in six tranches of ₹50 lakh each in December 2022-January 2023″.

The FIR said that thereafter, a further ₹2 crore was taken in four tranches.

Two days after Dhall was arrested by ED, CBI said that Vats met Sangwan at the Priya Complex  in Delhi. 

“Sangwan told Vats that the instructions regarding the arrest of Aman Dhall came from higher authorities and he doesn’t have influence with them,” the FIR said.

Later, in June, discussions took place where the issue of returning the bribe money was taken up. On June 29, ₹1 crore was returned to Dhall’s father.

On Vikramaditya’s role, the ED complaint says that Dhall approached him, after which he asked Vats to help him.

Officials said ED recovered CCTV footage of the meetings between the accused. In addition, it recovered ₹2.19 crore cash of bribe money from the residence of Vats and also found excise policy probe-related documents from the premises of Sangwan.

Updated: 28 Aug 2023, 11:29 PM IST