Excise case: Delhi Court reserves order on Chariot Media owner Rajesh Joshi's bail plea

New Delhi [India], April 21 : The Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi on Friday reserved the order on the bail plea of Rajesh Joshi, owner of Chariot Production Media Pvt Ltd who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its ongoing probe into Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 money laundering case.

The Special Judge MK Nagpal on Friday reserved the order on the bail petition after the conclusion of the arguements in the matter. The court fixed April 28, 2023, for the pronouncement of the order.

According to the Enforcement Directorate, Joshi was one of the beneficiaries of kickback money that originated out of the 'tweaked' policy which favoured liquor lobbies.

Rajesh Joshi in collusion with Vijay Nair got fake invoices issued and made payments to his vendors through Hawala for the Goa election campaign, said ED.

He allegedly laundered and distributed money and also spent huge amounts of money received on behalf of AAP for the campaign during the elections in Goa elections.

The ED and the CBI had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived off or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority's approval. The beneficiaries diverted "illegal" gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection.

This allegedly caused a loss of Rs 144.36 crore to the exchequer, which has been instituted on a reference from the Union Home Ministry following a recommendation from Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena.

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