NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on today, September 28, arrested businessman Sameer Mahendru, one of the key accused in Delhi's excise scam case involving Dy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
Mahendru's assistant Vijay Nair was detained by the CBI on Tuesday in connection with the same scam. Notably, Mahendru happens to be Enforcement Directorate's first arrest in the matter.
The ED had earlier conducted a raid on his home in the Jor Bagh area of New Delhi, assisted by forensic and technological specialists.
Mahendru once a prosecution witness in a bribery case brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against two DSIIDC officials, Amrik Singh and Sushanta Mukherjee, who were found guilty in 2013 based on his testimony. And now he is the target of an excise policy scam complaint filed by the same CBI agency.
Mahendru is said to have moved almost Rs 1 crore into Radha Industries, which is owned by Dinesh Arora, a close associate of Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
Mahendru is accused of paying between Rs 2 and Rs 4 crore to Arjun Pandey, another Sisodia ally, on behalf of Vijay Nair, the former CEO of the entertainment and event management company Only Much Louder (a defendant in the CBI's FIR).
There are claims that Vijay Nair, the accused public worker, received illegal financial benefits from Mahendru through Arun Ramchandra Pillai, a resident of Hyderabad's Kokapet area.
The Enforcement Directorate is now collecting documentary and digital proof to nail the money trail in money laundering. The agency is trying to make a watertight case by trying to unearth the layering of laundered money. The investigation is ongoing.
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