Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on Thursday in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have registered one case each in relation to the excise policy. The ED is probing if money was laundered using the policy.
Along with Kejriwal, two other top AAP leaders and K Kavitha, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, is also in jail.
The case stems from a report presented by Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena in July 2022. The report highlighted purported procedural shortcomings in the development of the policy and outlined cases where “arbitrary and unilateral decisions” were made by former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who was also the then-excise minister. These decisions led to “financial losses to the exchequer” amounting to over Rs 580 crore.
The report alleged that kickbacks received by the AAP Delhi government and AAP leaders from alcohol businesses influenced the Assembly elections in Punjab and Goa in early 2022, leading to the AAP forming the government in Punjab. The report said that the owners and operators of the alcohol business received preferential treatment in the form of discounts and extensions in licence fee, waiver on penalties and relief due to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report was then referred to the CBI, leading to Sisodia’s arrest.
Following this, when the CBI named Sisodia and 14 others in its FIR, including AAP communications in-charge Vijay Nair, the ED informed a court in March that the alleged proceeds of crime exceeded Rs 292 crore and stressed the necessity to establish the modus operandi.
The ED accused that the “scam” involved granting the wholesale liquor business to private entities with a fixed 12% margin, allowing for a 6% kickback. In its initial prosecution complaint filed in November 2021, the ED stated that the policy was deliberately crafted with loopholes that facilitated ‘cartel formations’ and benefited AAP leaders.
Here Is A List Of Leaders Who Have Been Arrested In The Delhi Excise Policy Case:
- Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi CM, AAP Convener: The probing agencies alleged that AAP communications in-charge Vijay Nair was acting on behalf of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal when he, along with a certain ‘South Group’, gave extraordinary profit margins to wholesalers which were otherwise not mentioned in the minutes of meetings of Group of Ministers (GoM) during the formulation of the policy.
- Manish Sisodia, AAP Leader, Former Deputy CM: The Delhi deputy minister Manish Sisodia has been in judicial custody in connection with the case. He is accused of tweaking the policy to grant undue favours to licence holders. He is also alleged to have made “illegal” gains and is being accused of money laundering as well.
- Sanjay Singh, AAP Rajya Sabha MP: Dinesh Arora who became an approver in a money-laundering case linked to the Delhi excise policy. Arora, alleged to have connection to Singh, disclosed arranging Rs 82 lakh for AAP’s Delhi assembly election campaign at Singh’s behest. He also claimed Singh introduced him to former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia at a party in his restaurant and that he met Sisodia and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
- Kavitha Kalvakuntla, Bharat Rashtra Samithi Leader, Telangana: Kavitha, 46, the daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and a former MP herself has been arrested last week for her alleged role in the Delhi excise policy case. It is alleged that Kavitha for being part of the aforementioned ‘South Group’ and is alleged to have paid kickbacks to the government functionaries and reaped benefits from the now excised Delhi liquor policy.
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