Delhi Excise Policy case: Court extends Vijay Nair’s judicial custody till October 20

Image Credit: File Photo: Representational purpose only

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday sent Vijay Nair, the communication strategist of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to judicial custody till October 20 in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise police case. Nair, recently arrested for his alleged role in the irregularities in the excise policy of the Delhi Government was produced before the court, by CBI at the end of his remand granted earlier. Special Judge MK Nagpal on Thursday decided to send Vijay Nair into Judicial custody after the Central Bureau of Investigation did not seek further custodial remand of him and said no more police custody was required. Earlier the court while granting the custodial remand stated that the allegations appearing in the FIR are serious and a detailed investigation is required to arrive at a logical conclusion in the due course.

It would be in the interest of justice to allow police custody of the accused Vijay Nair. The court on the last date of hearing also noted that the FIR reflects allegations of commission of several irregularities in the framing and implementation 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 along with 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 investigation and that there was no need for further extension of police custody as he has already undergone the same for five days. Recently the same court of MK Nagpal also sent Sameer Mahendru to ED remand. Mahendru, 

The 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 after a day the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) 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 is 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 had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to license 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. 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.