New Delhi: A little over two years after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) started probing the Delhi excise policy case, which was then also taken over by the Enforcement Directorate, all 18 accused arrested by the ED have been granted bail.
Businessmen Amandeep Singh Dhall and Amit Arora were granted bail Tuesday by the Delhi High Court in the money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam case.
Among the nine individuals arrested by the CBI in the primary case, all but Dhall have been granted bail by courts at different levels.
Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, former communication in-charge Vijay Nair and Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) MLC K. Kavitha are some of the high-profile accused in this case.
ThePrint pieces together the allegations brought against these accused and their period of jail stint before getting relief from the court.
1) Manish Sisodia
Date of arrest: 26 February, 2023
Date of bail: 6 August, 2024
Time spent in jail: 17 months
Role: Apart from naming him as one of the key conspirators to accusing him of b kickbacks from businesses and ‘South Group’, the agencies have alleged him to have received Rs 2.2 crore bribe from businessman Amit Arora in exchange of favourable policy changes. The CBI has alleged Sisodia abused his position and introduced policy changes to monopolise the wholesale and retail liquor trade in Delhi benefitting private players, who eventually gave kickbacks to the AAP.
2) Sanjay Singh
Date of arrest: 4 October, 2023
Date of bail: 2 April, 2024
Time in jail: 6 months
Role: The ED has alleged that it was Singh, who connected Sisodia and businessman Dinesh Arora and that Singh facilitated a meeting between them. The agency has also alleged Arora arranged funds for the AAP after Singh informed him about the party needing funds before the 2020 assembly elections.
The ED has alleged Singh to be directly linked to Rs 2 crore bribe given to his close aide Sarvesh Mishra.
3) Arvind Kejriwal
Date of arrest: 21 March, 2024
Date of bail: 13 August, 2024
Time in jail: Nearly 5 months
Role: The first allegation linked to Kejriwal was made in the prosecution complaint against liquor businessman Sameer Mahendru in which the ED accused the AAP chief of asking Nair to fully trust his “boy” Vijay Nair.
The investigating agency alleged that Kejriwal was the “kingpin”, “key conspirator” behind the loopholes in the excise policy that enabled private players to maximise profits in exchange of kickbacks.
Kejriwal referred accused-turned-approver Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy to K. Kavitha to form a cartel named ‘South Group’ that paid Rs 100 crore as kickback to the AAP, the ED alleged.
4) K. Kavitha
Date of arrest: 15 March, 2024
Date of bail: 27 August, 2024
Time in jail: Nearly 5.5 months
Role: The CBI arrested her from Tihar jail on 11 April and the agencies have alleged her to be the key member of the ‘South Group’ that paid Rs 100 crore upfront kickbacks to the AAP.
5) Vijay Nair
Date of arrest: 26 September 2022
Date of bail: 2 September, 2024
Time in jail: Nearly 23 months
Role: Agencies have alleged Nair to be staying at a government bungalow allotted to cabinet minister Kailash Gahlot and operating the negotiations of the policy on the behalf of Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal.
6) Abhishek Boinpally
Date of arrest: 10 October 2022.
Date of bail: 20 March, 2024
Time in jail: Nearly 17 months
Role: One of the representatives for K. Kavitha, who allegedly was part of the ’South Group’ that was said to have paid Rs 100 crore kickback to the AAP.
7) Sameer Mahendru
Date of arrest: 28 September, 2022
Date of bail: 9 September, 2024
Time in jail: Nearly 23 months
Role: Over the course of investigation, the ED alleged him to be one of the top beneficiaries of the now scrapped policy as he was running an alcoholic beverage manufacturing unit while holding both wholesale and retail licences under his relatives’ names.
The agency further alleged that his firm Indospirits was used as a special purpose vehicle to allow the ‘South Group’ to extract maximum benefits in exchange of alleged kickbacks.
8) Buchi Babu Gorantla
Date of arrest: 8 February, 2023
Date of bail: 6 March, 2023
Time in jail: Nearly 1 month
Role: He was alleged to be a former auditor of Kavitha and playing a key role in representing the business interests of ‘South Group’, which also purportedly comprised Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and Aurobindo Pharma director P. Sarath Reddy. The ED has also alleged him to be present in several meetings where formulation of the policy was discussed.
9) Arun Ramchandra Pillai
Date of arrest: 6 March, 2023
Date of bail: 11 September, 2024
Time in jail: Nearly 18 months
Role: The ED has claimed that the Hyderabad businessman played a key role in formulation of the policy as he was present in several discussion meetings with Vijay Nair and that he was given a draft copy of the Group of Ministers (GoM) report about the policy.
Additionally, the ED has alleged him to be a proxy for Kavitha and was allotted 32.5 percent shares in Indospirits, which was used for maximising profits in exchange of kickbacks paid upfront to the AAP leaders.
10) Benoy Babu
Date of arrest: 10 November, 2022
Date of bail: 8 December, 2023
Time in jail: 13 months
Role: The ED has alleged that Babu, a former executive of liquor giant Pernod Ricard, along with his colleague Manoj Rai met Nair to deal with the issue of giving Pernod’s wholesaler business to Brindco, which Nair wanted to be given to Indospirits.
11) Amit Arora
Date of arrest: 29 November, 2022
Date of bail: 17 September, 2024
Time in jail: Nearly 22 months
Role: The ED has alleged that the businessman met Sisodia for favourable changes in excise policy and paid Rs 2.2 crore to the former deputy chief minister.
12) Dinesh Arora
Date of arrest: 6 July, 2023
Date of bail: 1 August 2023
Time in jail: Nearly 1 month
Role: The ED has alleged that Rs 2.2 crore to Sisodia was paid through Arora, a businessman-turned-approver, and it was his name that had brought the agency on the doorsteps of AAP’s Sanjay Singh.
13) Raghav Magunta Reddy
Date of arrest: 10 February, 2023
Date of bail: 10 August, 2023
Time in jail: Nearly 4.5 months
Role: The ED has quoted the statement of Raghav, another accused-turned-approver, to allege that he paid Rs 25 crore to K. Kavitha through Buchi Babu and Hyderabad businessman Abhishek Boinpally as part of a deal negotiated by his father, Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, with the BRS leader to become part of the ‘South Group’.
14) P. Sharath Chandra Reddy
Date of arrest: 10 November, 2022
Date of bail: 8 May, 2023
Time in jail: Nearly 6 months
Role: Arrested by the ED, the director of Aurobindo Pharma was said to be one of the three members of the ‘South Group’ that allegedly paid kickbacks to the AAP leaders.
15) Rajesh Joshi
Date of arrest: 9 February, 2023
Date of bail: 6 May, 2023
Time in jail: Nearly 3 months
Role: The agency alleged that Joshi’s company Chariot Productions was beneficiary of the illicit money generated from excise policy irregularities which was said to be used for funding the AAP’s 2022 election campaign in Goa.
16) Gautam Malhotra
Date of arrest: 7 February, 2023
Date of bail: 6 May, 2023
Time in jail: 3 months
Role: The ED has charged the Punjab liquor baron of playing a role in cartelisation of liquor business and assimilating illicit money in the liquor business.
17) Amandeep Singh Dhall
Date of arrest: 1 March, 2023
Date of bail: 17 September, 2024 (in ED case)
Time in jail: Nearly 18 months
Role: The ED has alleged that his firm Brindo Sales was one of the beneficiaries of the extra revenue the excise policy generated and paid kickbacks to the ‘South Group’ through credit notes. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court in the CBI case.
18) Vinod Chauhan
Date of arrest: 3 May, 2024
Date of bail: 13 September, 2024
Time in jail: 4 months
Role: The ED has alleged that Chauhan, ‘a middleman’, was responsible for transfer of Rs 25.5 crore that he had received from Abhishek Boinpally as kickbacks from the lobby of ‘South Group’ from Delhi to Goa.
It submitted the conversation between him and Arvind Kejriwal to claim close proximity between the two.
19) Chanpreet Singh Rayat
Date of arrest: 12 April, 2024
Date of bail: 9 September, 2024
Time in jail: Nearly 5 months
Role: The ED has alleged that Chanpreet, an AAP volunteer, was involved in multiple transactions with the AAP during the assembly election campaigns, implying he was directly involved in the campaigning for the party.
(Edited by Tony Rai)