Liquor sales will obviously be hit. So, will real estate prices at what used to be prime locations, close to major thoroughfares. Food and snack sales close to highways will also, in all probability, be affected.
According to officials, this year there has been a three-fold increase in the total seizure, which was Rs 322 crore in 2021, Rs 347 crore in 2022 and Rs 1,021 crore so far in 2023.
'The chief minister has said on the floor of the House that he knows everything (about the criminal-politician mafia).' 'If you know about this nexus, why aren't you acting against them?' 'Ask him why is he so helpless.'
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan noted that Kavitha has been in custody for around five months and the probe against her by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was complete in these cases.
With poll fever gathering steam, business is booming for New Delhi's detective agencies as politicians, especially aspiring candidates, are hiring private eyes to spy on their rivals and even colleagues.
Rattled by the public outcry over illegal liquor sale that claimed 173 lives in South 24-Parganas district a week ago, the hooch-sellers have demanded a financial package as a pre-condition to discarding their trade on the lines of the one announced for the Maoists. The bootleggers have formed a committee for this purpose and pasted posters on the walls of the Joynagar railway station, close to Sangrampur, from where most of the victims hailed, requesting a financial package.
Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal is unlikely to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the Delhi excise policy, sources in the party said.
Post-mortems of 16 more suspected hooch victims were conducted here in the last two days, raising their number to 87, but authorities on Wednesday kept the official death toll in tragedy pegged at 35.
The Enforcement Directorate has issued fresh summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, asking him to appear before it on February 26 for questioning in the excise policy linked money laundering case, official sources said Thursday.
Of the 11 people allegedly involved, seven are women and four men, including juveniles. While the seven women have been arrested, police are trying to ascertain the age of the two others picked up, officials said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is expected to press money laundering charges against its two officers and some private individuals who were recently booked by the CBI in a bribery case linked to an accused arrested in the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam, official sources said Tuesday.
An unaccounted cash of Rs 12.36 lakh was on Thursday seized from a car registered in the name of a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA's husband in the state capital during a special drive in view of Bihar assembly elections.
Kejriwal, who was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the same case and later by the CBI which was probing corruption charges, stepped out after spending 155 days in Tihar jail. The AAP supremo, who was earlier granted three-week interim bail in the ED case, was given a resounding welcome by his party leaders and supporters who were drenched in heavy rain. Addressing party workers from the top of an SUV, Kejriwal, sporting a half-sleeve blue shirt, raised 'Inquilab Zindabad' and 'Vande Mataram' slogans.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal 'directly used' part of the alleged Rs 100 crore generated from the 'kickbacks' of the Delhi excise policy 'scam' by staying in a luxury hotel in Goa, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed in its charge sheet filed against the Aam Aadmi Party supremo.
The AAP said that the ED should wait for the court's decision instead of repeatedly sending summonses to Kejriwal.
The agency may also inform the court about its requirement to confront Kejriwal with other arrested accused and witnesses including Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader K Kavitha, arrested last week, once they get his custody.
Wednesday's Vikravandi by-election has become a referendum on the Stalin government, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader K Kavitha is expected to be produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court by the Enforcement Directorate in New Delhi on Saturday for obtaining her remand for custodial interrogation in the money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22, officials said.
A Delhi court on Friday sent Bharat Rasthra Samithi leader K Kavitha to Central Bureau of Investigation custody till April 15 in the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a fresh and the fifth summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his questioning in the Delhi excise policy linked money laundering case, official sources said Wednesday.
The Aam Aadmi Party dismissed the allegation as "baseless" and claimed it was "another conspiracy hatched by the BJP" to tarnish AAP's image ahead of voting for Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and Punjab.
On Monday, Kejriwal, 55, skipped the seventh summons issued to him in the case, saying he would appear before the agency if a court ordered him to do so.
The Bihar assembly plunged into turmoil on Saturday when the opposition sought to raise the issue of alleged involvement of revenue and land reforms minister Ram Surat Rai in illicit liquor trade, forcing adjournment of the House around noon till lunch.
Of the 59 assembly constituencies, three have been categorised as 'sensitive' and 590 localities marked as 'vulnerable,' according to the police.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday arrested Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader K Kavitha after an hours-long raid at her premises in Hyderabad and brought her to Delhi for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, agency sources said.
The Enforcement Directorate said it has no objection if the AAP leader Sanjay Singh is given bail in the case.
The point made by sociologist M N Srinivas, that it represented a Sanskritic act that was linked to caste, is never raised in Indian debates and the disapproval of drink is almost universal, notes Aakar Patel.
The ED had arrested Kejriwal on March 21, hours after the high court refused to grant him protection from coercive action by the federal anti-money laundering agency.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has attached assets worth more than Rs 52 crore of arrested AAP leader Manish Sisodia, his wife and some other accused in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday told the Delhi high court that the trial court order granting bail to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was based on 'perverse' findings as it did not consider the material demonstrating his 'neck deep involvement' in the offence of money laundering linked to the alleged excise scam.
Total of Rs 40 lakh cash and over 53,000 litres of illicit liquor was seized
The CBI has alleged that Singh had transferred funds through hawala channels to Chariot Media that was handling the AAP's publicity campaign during the Goa elections, the officials said.
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Kerala government not to impose a ban on liquor bars and maintain status quo till September 30.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested the commercial head and production controller of India Ahead News in connection with a probe into the alleged Delhi excise scam, officials said Monday.
The CBI had on Sunday deferred his questioning after he sought time from the agency citing the Delhi government's ongoing budget exercise.
Several states that imposed prohibition in the past lifted it once revenue loss began to pinch
The bench said it is not going into the merit of the case at the moment.
This comes after the agency conducted searches at his residence earlier in the day in connection with the case.
Officials said the agency may ask the chief minister about the policy formulation process especially of the "untraceable" file which was earlier slated to be put before the Council of Ministers.
A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court, seeking an independent probe by a special investigation team (SIT) into a recent hooch tragedy in Bihar, in which at least 30 people have lost their lives.
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