As Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is arrested in excise policy case, a look back at the case so far

Here’s the timeline of the case:

📌 November 2021: The Delhi liquor policy was introduced in November 2021. Later, the ED had said that the policy was “formulated with deliberate loopholes” that “promoted cartel formations through the back door” to benefit AAP leaders.

📌 July 2022: The allegations in the Delhi excise policy scam arose out of a report submitted by Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena pointing to alleged procedural lapses in the formulation of the policy. The report was referred to CBI and the agency named Sisodia and 14 other accused in the FIR.

📌 September 2022: CBI arrested Vijay Nair, AAP communications in-charge last September. In November, he was arrested by the ED. Last July, a Delhi court dismissed his bail plea. Nair is accused of being a middleman between the ‘South Group’ and laundering money received as kickbacks during AAP’s Goa Assembly poll campaign. According to the ED, this group “secured uninhibited access, undue favours, attained stakes in established wholesale businesses and multiple retail zones (over and above what was allowed in the policy)”.

📌 February 2023: Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested by the CBI and was lodged in Tihar jail. Sisodia resigned from Delhi government with the AAP handing over its portfolios to his party colleague Atishi.

📌 March 2023: The ED told Delhi court that the alleged proceeds of crime amounted to more than Rs 292 crore, and that it was necessary to establish the modus operandi. The ED alleged that the “scam” was to give the wholesale liquor business to private entities and fix a 12% margin, for a 6% kickback.

📌 October 2023: ED sent summons to Kejriwal for the first time. So far, the central agency has sent nine summons to Kejriwal. Kejriwal has so far maintained that the ED summonses to him are being sent “at the behest of the BJP”. ED also arrested Sanjay Singh, AAP MP alleging that Rs 2 crore illegal cash changed hands at Singh’s official North Avenue residence. Singh was in five-day custody of ED.

📌 March 15, 2024: K Kavitha, BRS leader and Telangana Legislative Council member was arrested by the ED at 5:20 pm from her residence at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad. A Delhi court sent her to ED custody till March 23. She was arrested allegedly for being part of the ‘South Group’.

📌 March 19, 2024: The ED, for the first time, alleged that Kejriwal was a conspirator in the case while the Central Bureau of Investigation said that “some high-profile persons” may be arrested in the case.