Excise case: ED arrests businessman Dinesh Arora

The ED, in one of its chargesheets, has alleged that Arora acted as a “conduit for kickbacks” between the ‘South group’ and the Aam Aadmi Party.

An official said investigation has so far revealed that the accused persons entered into a criminal conspiracy when the excise policy was still under formulation from April 2020 to get “undue benefits by circumventing provisions of the policy and to achieve the illegal objective of cartelisation between liquor manufacturers, wholesalers and retail vendors”.

“Probe has also revealed that huge amount of around Rs 20-30 crore was arranged by businessman Abhishek Boinpally at the behest of some liquor manufacturers belonging to South (India) and this amount was transferred or transmitted by him through accused Arora to AAP communications in-charge Vijay Nair and his associates during the period between July and September 2021 in cash using hawala channels,” the official said.

The ED chargesheet relies on statements made by Arora, Indospirits MD Sameer Mahendru and South group member Arun Pillai to allege that Arora took over from Nair when the latter was busy with the Goa and Punjab Assembly elections.

The excise policy, which brought in big discounts for consumers, was scrapped on July 31 last year amid allegations of corruption and irregularities in its drafting and implementation.

According to the chargesheet, on one occasion, Sisodia allegedly held a meeting of retailers, and when Arora arrived late, Sisodia asked him to sit next to him. This is based on Mahendru’s statement, recorded by the ED on September 10, 2022.

According to the statement, Sisodia “gesturing” to Arora “to come and sit next to him” was a “message which was received by the market that he was close to AAP and specifically Dy CM”, the chargesheet alleges.