New Delhi: Delhi government’s now-withdrawn new liquor policy “prompted cartel formations through backdoor” and “incentivized other illegal activities” as part of a criminal conspiracy by top Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders to extract kickbacks from liquor barons, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has said in a supplementary chargesheet.
The chargesheet, a copy of which is with ThePrint, goes further to allege that the rescinded liquor policy gave way to an “exorbitant profit margin at 12 per cent and huge retail profit margin of 185 per cent”.
Reacting to the charges, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in a press conference Thursday termed the ED’s chargesheet as “fiction”. “All of ED’s cases are fake. They are used only to make and break governments,” he alleged.
According to the chargesheet, AAP media and communications in-charge Vijay Nair allegedly received Rs 100 crore from the “south group” which comprised, among others, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K. Kavitha, as advance kickbacks. This money — managed through “hawala channels” — was then used in the AAP’s poll campaign in Goa, the ED claimed.
The ED submitted that it believes Hyderabad-based businessman Abhishek Boinpally, who is also a representative of the “south group”, played a key role in the alleged conspiracy and payment of Rs 100 crore to Nair. Boinpally, the ED said, used to give a currency note number and mobile number to Dinesh Arora, another businessman, who shared them with two people who collected the funds from hawala operators in Delhi.
“Vijay Nair had told Dinesh to coordinate with Abhishek for bringing funds to the tune of Rs 20-30 crore from Hyderabad to Delhi. This money was the kickback from South Group to Vijay Nair on behalf of AAP,” said the chargesheet.
The ED submitted that Nair was the key person from the AAP who “orchestrated the conspiracy of kickbacks, undue favours and arm twisting”.
“Cash payments to the tune of Rs 70 lakh were made to volunteers part of survey teams. Moreover, advertisement-related work was directed to raise only part of the claims in the bill and receive the remaining in cash. These parts of cash payments were managed through hawala channels. Nair even directed firms to issue bogus invoices,” it said.
According to the ED, Delhi government’s new excise policy was framed by top leaders of the AAP to continuously “generate and channel illegal funds to themselves”. The policy, ED said, was formed with “deliberate loopholes to facilitate illegal and criminal activities.”
The case pertains to allegations against the AAP government of granting undue financial favours to vendors taking 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 Kejriwal-led AAP government’s 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 excise policy, extension of undue favours to licensees like waivers and reduction in the licence fee, and extension of L-1 licence (granted to business entities having wholesale distribution experience in liquor trade) without prior approval.
Besides Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and Nair, the 15 individuals named in the chargesheet include former deputy excise commissioner Anand Tiwari, former assistant excise commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar and Indian liquor barons who represent premium alcohol brands such as Glenlivet, Absolut and Jameson.
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‘Facetime’ with Kejriwal &‘arm-twisting’
According to the chargesheet, Nair had arranged a meeting of the owner of Indospirit Group, Sameer Mahendru, with the Delhi CM. When the meeting did not materialise, Nair arranged a ‘Facetime’ call where Kejriwal allegedly told Mahendru that Nair was “his boy” and that he should trust him. These facts, ED said, were relevant to establishing Nair’s involvement in the framing of the now-withdrawn excise policy and the alleged scam.
Stating that Nair had no role in the Delhi government, the ED said he “acted as a broker, middleman on behalf of AAP leaders for getting bribes, kickbacks from various stakeholders in Delhi liquor business in exchange of favourable policy changes, which was being drafted”.
The ED further alleged that Nair threatened stakeholders who were not complying with his demands, accusing him of arm-twisting wholesalers to surrender their L1 licences in connivance with Dinesh Arora. Nair then picked the wholesalers of his choice to manage profit margins, which the ED said was done to ensure that they were in complete control of the “kickbacks to be extracted”.
According to the chargesheet, the ED’s investigation also revealed illegal use of the influence of officials of the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government in Punjab.
“As a part of a conspiracy of excise officials of Punjab State Govt, Dinesh Arora and others arm twisted a wholesaler called Mahadev to surrender the licence for manufacturers in May 2022 by shutting down the liquor manufacturing units as they were not ready to pay 6 per cent kickbacks to Vijay Nair or AAP as was devised at the time of policy formulation and was expected out of all L1s,” the chargesheet alleged.
It added that Nair “arm-twisted Mahadev Liquors into surrendering their L1 licence in Delhi by using Government machinery of Punjab Excise after AAP formed the government in Punjab after the elections in March 2022”.
“As a result of this conspiracy and arm twisting done by Nair with others resulted in the surrendered licence of Mahadev Liquors and the business of 4 manufacturers were then diverted to Shiv Associates and Diwan Spritism the profit of Rs 8.02 crore accrued to them are proceeds of crime. Nair also projected these profits as genuine,” the ED said.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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