By Atul Krishan
New Delhi, Apr 12 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in its second supplementary charge sheet filed in the Delhi excise policy scam, has accused Punjab-based businessman Gautam Malhotra of influencing witnesses not to join the ED's probe, thus obstructing the agency's investigation.
A top source said that ED has mentioned this in its latest second supplementary charge sheet filed last week.
As per the charge sheet, Malhotra wilfully and cunningly made concerted efforts to obstruct the probe of the ED and hamper the collection of evidence. He also reportedly changed his cellphone four times in the matter.
The ED source said that the agency has alleged in the charge sheet that Malhotra deliberately obstructed the agency from collecting evidence since the beginning.
The ED issued as many as 14 summons to Malhotra, but he only appeared on three or four occasions.
The source said that Malhotra threatened witnesses not to appear before the ED in order to derail the probe.
ED wanted to grill a person named Ravi Raj, who reportedly has all the details pertaining to Malhotra's business, but he is absconding now. He was summoned on various occasions but he never appeared before the ED. Teams were sent to his address, but he was found missing from there too.
The ED team, however, managed to get his driver's address. During investigation, the ED learnt that it was Raj who had been using his driver's cellphone, so that the ED team cannot locate his locations.
"The problem is Raj's driver is also missing. His phone contained various incriminating evidences. But he is untraceable," the source said.
"Raj's cellphone has the soft copy of all the summons issued to the dummy persons and even the reply that were sent on their behalf to the ED to avoid summons. The dummy persons are also on the run," the ED claimed.
The court had fixed April 14 as the next date of hearing, but since it will be a holiday to mark the birth anniversary of B.R Ambedkar, the cognisance will be taken on a future date.
(Atul Krishan can be reached at atul.k@ians.in)
--IANS
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