Vijay Nair, the Aam Aadmi Party’s communications in-charge, and businessman Abhishek Boinpally have been detained by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the suspected Delhi Excise Policy Scam, sources said on Monday.
In order to get their remand custody, the federal agency will present Nair and Boinpally to a special court. Both suspects have been brought into custody by the ED from Tihar jail. The ED will examine both suspects following their incarceration in relation to its ongoing investigation into the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 money laundering case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation detained Nair on September 27 in connection with his alleged involvement in irregularities with the excise policy of the Delhi government.
An FIR was lodged after LG VK Saxena suggested a CBI investigation.
The CBI claims that Nair participated in meetings with the other co-accused, alcohol producers, and distributors in Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi in order to arrange “ill-gotten money through hawala operators.”
According to the CBI probe, Boinpally attended meetings with the other defendants in the case, including liquor industry executives, in Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad.
The central agency said in court that Boinpally and another defendant, liquor industry executive Sameer Mahendru, who has already been detained and is presently being held in Tihar jail, were involved in a scheme to launder money.
Nair and Bonipally will now be questioned in the matter by the ED.
After detaining two people, including the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, Sharath Chandra Reddy, the agency took action.
Following Sameer Mahendru’s arrest in the case, Managing Director of Delhi’s Jor Bagh-based liquor distributor Indospirit Group, the ED conducted over three dozen raids in Delhi and Punjab in October.
Manish Sisodia, the deputy chief minister of Delhi, Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari, and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar were all named as defendants in the case.
Manoj Rai, a former employee of Pernod Ricard, Amandeep Dhal, director of Brindco Sales, Amit Arora, and Dinesh Arora, directors of Buddy Retail, and Sunny Marwah, Arun Ramchandra Pillai, and Arjun Pandey, authorised signatories of Mahadev Liquors, are the other suspects.
The ED and the CBI have alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived 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.
As alleged, the Excise Department has decided to refund the earnest money deposit of about Rs 30 crore to a successful tenderer against the set rules. Even though there was no enabling provision, a waiver of the tendered licence fee was allowed from December 28, 2021, to January 27, 2022, due to COVID-19.
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.