New Delhi: Kailash Gahlot, another high-profile cabinet minister in the Delhi government, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in the Delhi excise policy case Saturday, hours after receiving a summons from the agency.
An ED source told ThePrint that Gahlot, who has been summoned for the first time, was part of the Group of Ministers (GoM) — also including former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and former health minister Satyendar Jain — that gave directions to the excise department to restructure the excise policy, in which Delhi would be divided into several zones and an auction would be held for handing over the retail business in these zones to the highest bidders.
“Gahlot needs to be questioned on the findings during investigation,” the source said.
The excise policy case pertains to alleged irregularities in formulating and implementing the policy for 2021-22. Several prominent leaders of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have been jailed in connection with the case, including Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.
Kejriwal was arrested on 21 March and is in the custody of the federal probe agency, while other leaders such as Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and former campaign manager of the party Vijay Nair are in judicial custody.
Sources in the agency told ThePrint that Gahlot has been asked to appear before the investigating officers to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) provisions. He will be questioned for the first time in the case.
The ED has alleged in its supplementary prosecution complaint, which is the agency’s version of a chargesheet, that the GoM ignored an expert committee’s recommendations on not allotting wholesale licences to manufacturers (and to rather give them to the government), leading to cartelisation and private players reaping profits.
“The policy formulated on the basis of the GoM’s recommendations allowed private entities in wholesale operations, which resulted in shifting of profit from the government to private entities. This route to market gave space for cartel formation. Moreover, the government lost control and supervision over wholesale business,” the ED alleged in its remand application moved in court to seek custody of P. Sarath Reddy, who later turned approver in the case.
Additionally, Nair — who, according to the ED, played a key role in the formulation of the excise policy and the recoupment of alleged Rs 100 crore in kickbacks from the “South Group” in exchange for undue favours in connection with the policy — was residing at the official government bungalow allotted to Gahlot.
According to the ED, the leading figures in the “South Group”, an alleged liquor cartel, are Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K. Kavitha, MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, his son Raghav Reddy and the director of Aurobindo Pharma, P. Sarath Reddy.
“As revealed by Vijay Nair in his statement dated 18.11.2022, he lived at a government bungalow without any official authorisation which was officially allotted to a Cabinet Minister, Kailash Gahlot, close to the bungalow of Arvind Kejriwal. That, Vijay Nair operated from the camp office of Arvind Kejriwal,” the ED alleged in its remand application to seek custody of Kejriwal.
“Vijay Nair, on behalf of Arvind Kejriwal and AAP, received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore from a group, for convenience, we may call it the South Group (as termed in the statements of various persons recorded during the investigation), whose prominent persons are Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, Raghav Magunta, Sarath Reddy and K. Kavitha,” it said.
The MLA from the Najafgarh constituency since 2015, Gahlot holds powerful departments such as revenue, law, administrative reforms, transport, justice and legislative affairs, along with women and child development and IT, in the Kejriwal-led government.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)