BJP threatening shopkeepers: Manish Sisodia after govt returns to old liquor policy

New Delhi: A day after the Delhi government decided to return to the old regime of retail liquor sale policy for six months, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday accused the BJP of threatening shopkeepers and officers with ED and CBI cases.

"The BJP workers are threatening shopkeepers, officers in Delhi with ED and CBI. They want closure of legal liquor shops to make money out of illegal shops. We've decided to stop the new liquor policy and ordered the government to open government liquor shops," said Sisodia during a press briefing.

Sisodia also alleged that like Gujarat, the BJP wants to promote the sale of spurious, off-duty liquor by threatening Delhi's shop-owners and officers.

Deputy CM further said: "In Delhi, our government brought a new excise policy last year. Before excise policy 2021-22, most of the liquor shops in Delhi were government-run and were mired in corruption".

"We brought a new liquor policy to stop corruption. Before that the government used to get around Rs 6,000 crore as revenue from 850 liquor shops. But, after the new policy, our government would have got more than Rs 9,000 crore with the same number of shops," Sisodia said.

"We have withdrawn the new excise policy and directed the opening of government liquor stores. I have directed the chief secretary to ensure no chaos during the transition period," he added.

However, Delhi government has decided to go back to the old regime of liquor sale after LG recommended investigation by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) into the ongoing excise policy.