Excise Policy case: Delhi court allows businessman Dinesh Arora to turn approver

New Delhi, November 16

In fresh trouble for Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, a city court on Wednesday allowed the CBI’s plea to make businessman Dinesh Arora, an accused considered close to him, an approver in the excise policy case.

Special Judge MK Nagpal passed the order while allowing pardon to Arora in the case, a court source said.

During the hearing, Arora had told the court he was ready to make “true disclosure voluntarily” and expressed the desire to turn an approver.

The development comes days ahead of the assembly elections in Gujarat and the polls to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi where Sisodia’s AAP and the BJP are locked in a bitter contest.

The court had earlier granted anticipatory bail to Arora after the CBI didn’t opposed his petition.

The premier investigative agency, in its reply to the anticipatory bail plea had stated that Arora had joined the probe  and disclosed certain facts which were vital for the investigation and hence, “the CBI has no objection if the ancipatory bail is granted to the applicant by this court.” In August, the CBI had registered a case in the alleged excise policy scam and issued Look Out Circular (LOC) against eight private persons named as accused.

Among the accused public servants are Sisodia, the then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar.