New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal is one of the “main conspirators” of the criminal conspiracy in the alleged Delhi Excise Policy scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told a special court Wednesday, while seeking five days’ custody of the chief minister of Delhi.
Kejriwal was arrested by the CBI hours before the Supreme Court was set to hear his plea against a Delhi High Court order that stayed the bail granted to him by a lower court.
The special CBI court Wednesday granted the CBI three days’ custody to question Kejriwal over alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-withdrawn Delhi Excise Policy (2021-22).
Seeking Kejriwal’s remand, the CBI furnished grounds similar to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) submissions in March, including Kejriwal’s meetings with Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K. Kavitha and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, the newly elected Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Member of Parliament from Ongole, to “discuss the liquor business”.
Stating the grounds for arrest, CBI told the special court that Vijay Nair, identified as a close associate of Kejriwal, was “contacting various liquor manufacturers and traders and demanding undue gratification since March 2021, for incorporation of provisions favourable to them in the upcoming Delhi Excise Policy for the year 2021-22”.
The agency further claimed Reddy met Kejriwal on 16 March 2021 at his office in the Delhi Secretariat and requested him for support vis-a-vis the liquor business in Delhi. During the meeting, Kejriwal allegedly assured Reddy of support and asked him to contact Kavitha.
“Kejriwal also told Reddy to provide monetary funding to AAP (Aam Aadmi Party). It is corroborated with documentary material on record,” the CBI said in its remand note.
The case pertains to allegations against the AAP government of granting undue financial favours to vendors seeking liquor licences, thereby causing losses of “over Rs 140 crore” to the exchequer, and receiving kickbacks in return for those favours, besides conniving with owners of several companies as part of a nexus.
On 22 July last year, Delhi L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22, alleging “deliberate and gross procedural lapses”, according to an assessment report prepared by Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar. Alleged irregularities included modifications in the policy, extension of undue favours to licensees like waivers and reduction in licence fee, and extension of L-1 licence (granted to entities having wholesale distribution experience in liquor trade) without prior approval.
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‘Meeting with South Group, Rs 25 cr paid’
CBI further submitted before the special court that on 19 March Kavitha contacted Reddy over the phone and requested for a meeting in Hyderabad. Kavitha told him that Kejriwal spoke to her and asked her to give Rs 100 crore to AAP, the agency alleged, adding that she told Reddy he should arrange for Rs 50 crore of the total sum as his contribution.
“Reddy was informed that Kavitha and her team which includes Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Pillai and Chartered Accountant Buchi Babu, had already been working on New Excise Policy of Delhi in coordination with Nair for getting favourable provision in upcoming Delhi Excise Policy case,” the remand note said. It added that Babu, Kavitha’s aide, then allegedly contacted Reddy’s son Raghav on 21 March 2021 and demanded 50 crore. Raghav said he could arrange Rs 30 crore and finally, Rs 25 crore was paid in cash, CBI claimed.
Of the Rs 25 crore, Rs 10 crore was paid to Buchi Babu in March and 15 crore to Abhishek Boinpalli in June, the agency alleged.
“In lieu of the same Raghav Magunta was given a partnership of 32.5 percent in the wholesale liquor licensee (L1) firm M/s Indospirits under the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22. Nair was instrumental in getting wholesale business of the liquor manufacturer company Pernod Ricard India, which was having the largest (around 35 percent) of market share in Delhi to Indospirits,” the remand note said.
It added, “This wholesale licence was in violation to the rules and despite pendency of complaints of cartelization and blacklisting against the partners Indospirits, on the explicit direction and coercion of co-accused Manish Sisodia.”
‘Leaked’ GoM report
According to the CBI, Buchi Babu also allegedly had access to parts of the Group of Ministers (GoM) report on the Excise Policy 2021-22 two days before it was submitted it to the Council of Ministers of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi. “He received the same because of his access and connection with Vijay Nair,” the CBI claimed.
According to a source in the agency, Nair’s visit to Hyderabad to meet Kavitha and his chats and call detail records with Buchi Babu, retrieved from Babu’s phone, as also with Boinpally and Pillai, established the alleged criminal conspiracy.
“The first draft of the GoM report dated 15 March retrieved from the computer of Sisodia, in which the profit margin for wholesalers in the Excise Policy was 5 percent only. On 16 March, the accused took a printout of 36 pages at Hotel Oberoi and visited Oberoi Maidens, Delhi, to meet Vijay Nair. It was revealed from CDR analysis of Vijay Nair that he had visited the CM’s camp office located at the residence of Kejriwal in the morning on the same day when he met Reddy,” said the remand note.
“The chats’ contents were not in the 15 March 2021 and 19 March 2021 GoM reports but in the 22 March 2021 final report, which came after Vijay Nair met K. Kavitha in Hyderabad,” it added.
Kejriwal has been in judicial custody since his arrest by the ED in March. He was questioned by CBI Tuesday at Tihar jail, where he was lodged, and produced in the Rouse Avenue courts after it issued a production warrant against the AAP national convenor.
A total of four chargesheets have been filed in this case against 17 persons including members of the so-called ‘South Group’, former Delhi deputy CM Sisodia and Kavitha, CBI told the special court.
It added, “This includes aspect of incorporation of favourable provisions in Excise Policy case at the behest of South Group in lieu of payment of upfront money of Rs 100 crore, transfer of ill-gotten money of Rs 44.45 crore from the accused persons connected with South Group to Goa during June 2021 to January 2022 through hawala channel and utilisation of the same for the election campaign of AAP in Goa as well as aspects of larger conspiracy and the trail for kickbacks.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)