Delhi Excise Policy case: Court extends Vijay Nair's CBI custody till Oct 6
Oct 03, 2022
New Delhi [India], October 3 : A Delhi Court on Monday extended Vijay Nair, communication strategist of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) remand till October 6.
He was recently arrested for his alleged role in the irregularities pertaining to the excise policy of the Delhi Government.
Nair was produced before the court, by CBI at the end of his remand granted earlier.
Special Judge Raghubir Singh on Monday while deciding to extend the custodial remand period till October 6, 2022, said, "the allegations as appearing in the FIR are serious and a detailed investigation is required for the purpose of arriving at a logical conclusion in the due course. It would be in the interest of justice to allow further Police Custody of accused Vijay Nair up till the 6th of this month on which date, he shall be produced before the Court concerned during the Court hours."
The Court noted that the FIR reflects allegations of commission of a number of irregularities in the framing and implementing of the Excise Policy of NCT of Delhi for the year 2021-2022 and various known and unknown persons have been shown instrumental therein at various stages allegedly performing various roles and undue favours to the licensees for obtaining illegal pecuniary benefits.
Senior Advocate Ramesh Gupta alongwith Advocate Mohd Irshad contended on behalf of the accused that the only plausible ground being pleaded/argued on behalf of the prosecution is that the accused did not cooperate during the course of the investigation and that there was no need for further extension of police custody as he has already undergone the same for 05 days.
Recently the special court of MK Nagpal had also sent Sameer Mahendru to ED remand till October 6, 2022. Mahendru, Managing Director of Delhi's Jor Bagh-based liquor distributor Indospirit Group, was arrested by the ED officials last week.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also filed ECIR while initiating a money laundering probe in connection with the CBI FIR relating to the framing and execution of the Delhi Government's excise policy in which Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is the accused.
The ED arrested Sameer Mahendru a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday (Last week) arrested Vijay Nair, former chief executive officer of Mumbai-based Only Much Louder, in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy case.
Among the accused public servants are Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar.
Other accused are Manoj Rai, a former employee of Pernod Ricard; Amandeep Dhal, director of Brindco Sales; director of Buddy Retail Amit Arora, and Dinesh Arora; authorised signatories of Mahadev Liquors Sunny Marwah, Arun Ramchandra Pillai and Arjun Pandey.
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.
An alleged, the Excise Department had 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 on 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, said the FIR, which has been instituted on a reference from the Union Home Ministry following a recommendation from Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena.
