The Rouse Avenue Court has recently extended the ED remand of Vinod Chauhan till May 12, in the Excise Policy money laundering case.
He had been arrested by the ED for allegedly transferring cash bribe amount from South Group to the election campaign of AAP during Goa Assembly Elections.
WHAT COURT ORDERED?
Vinod Chauhan was produced by the ED before the court after the end of his custody period. The court on the last date had sent Chauhan to 3 days ED remand.
The Special Judge Kaveri Baweja after going through the ED’s remand application decided to extend ED remand till May 12, 2024.
According to the ED, Vinod Chauhan got arrested from Goa’s ED Zonal Office. He was involved in the transfer of the amount of Rs.25.5 crores out of Rs.45 crores which was used in the AAP Goa elections.
Appearing for ED, Advocates Zoheb Hossain and Naveen Kumar Matta submitted that Chauhan was aware of the fact that the money was related to the Delhi liquor excise policy scam and was in deep nexus with the key conspirators.
WHAT ED ALLEGED?
ED alleged that, he is primarily involved in Hawala transfers and cash movements and also acted as a middleman for bureaucrats & politicians.
Also it was stated that searches were conducted at various locations and Rs 1.06 crores was seized from his residence.
The agency claimed that he knew the amount of Rs 1.06 crores was from the South Group and was holding it for AAP leaders.
While seeking custody for 4 days ED stated that they needed to unearth the money trail which is exclusive to his knowledge and confront with digital and material records and with other accused and witnesses.
However, during the hearing, Advocate Gagan Manocha appeared for Chauhan opposed the remand plea of ED and submitted that he has been cooperating with the probe and audit reports have been already given to the agency regarding the amount seized by the ED.
MORE IN THE CASE
In the excise case, the ED & CBI alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority’s approval.
The probe agencies stated that the beneficiaries diverted “illegal” gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection.
According to the allegations, the excise department decided to refund the earnest money deposit of about Rs.30 crore to a successful tenderer against the set rules.
Even though there was no enabling provision, a waiver on tendered licence fees was allowed from December 28, 2021, to January 27, 2022, due to COVID-19, the probe agency said and there was an alleged loss of Rs 144.36 crore to the exchequer.
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