Kejriwal told businessman that Vijay Nair is ‘his boy’: ED chargesheet in Delhi excise ‘scam’; CM calls it fiction

Speaking to reporters later, Kejriwal dismissed as “fiction” the allegation in the ED’s complaint, which is equivalent to a chargesheet. Nair was the ruling AAP’s communications-in-charge at the time of the alleged irregularities in the excise policy, which was later scrapped.

The ED’s prosecution complaint also states that its investigation into alleged kickbacks of Rs 100 crore related to the excise policy “revealed that part of these funds were used in the election campaign of AAP for Goa Assembly elections 2022”.

Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said, “In this (Central) Government’s tenure, ED must have filed 5,000 chargesheets so far. How many of those people have been convicted in those cases? All of ED’s cases are fake. They are used only to make and break governments. The ED does not file cases to end corruption but to help the Government break away and buy MLAs, help governments fall and form new governments. The ED chargesheet is fiction.”

Nair’s lawyers declined to comment on the allegations. Mahendru’s lawyer, Dhruv Gupta, said, “These are allegations which have to be tested during trial. My client has nothing to do with the allegations of cartelisation.” Nair and Mahendru are in jail following their arrest in the case on September 28, 2022.

The ED complaint refers to Indospirits owner Mahendru’s statement dated November 12 and 15, 2022, in which he claimed that Nair told him “the new excise policy was a brainchild of Arvind Kejriwal”. “…Vijay fixed a meeting with him twice but that could not materialise. So Vijay made Sameer speak to Arvind Kejriwal on Facetime call,” the complaint states, citing Mahendru’s statement.

Referring to the purported video call, the ED complaint states that Kejriwal told Mahendru “Vijay is his boy and that Sameer should trust him and carry on with him”. The ED alleged that “this incident assures Sameer Mahendru of Vijay Nair’s credibility and clout” and “reveals support Nair was given by the top leaders of AAP including the head of the party and the Delhi Govt, Arvind Kejriwal”.

Apart from Mahendru and Nair, the ED complaint names Sarath Reddy; Benoy Babu, the General Manager at Pernod Ricard; and, businessmen Abhishek Boinpally and Amit Arora.

The complaint states that the excise policy was allegedly “created by top AAP leaders to continuously generate illegal funds”. It refers to the statement of C Arvind, Secretary to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, to claim that a draft GoM (Group of Ministers) report was given to him in March 2021, when the senior official was called by Sisodia “at the residence of Arvind Kejriwal, CM (where Health Minister Satyender Jain was also present)”.

The ED alleged that the conspiracy was to give wholesale business to private entities and fix 12 per cent margin (to get 6% kickback out of the same)”. The ED claimed that this was the first time C Arvind saw this proposal, which was never discussed in any of the GoM meetings.

Nair has been accused by the ED of receiving kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore from the “South Group” allegedly comprising individuals identified as Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy (YSRCP MP), Raghav Magunta, Sarath Reddy and Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha. Kavitha has denied the allegations.

The ED has claimed that the kickback was allegedly facilitated by Boinpally in connivance with Nair and his associate, Dinesh Arora. It claimed that Rs 30 crore was handled by Arora in connivance with Boinpally and Rs 1 crore by Arora under Nair’s instructions.

The ED also relied on a statement from businessman Arun Pillai, dated October 2, 2022, which refers to a meeting called by Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, in which he claimed that “he met Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi CM to find out more about the Delhi Excise policy; that MSR said that Arvind Kejriwal welcomed his entry in Delhi liquor trade…”

Referring to the Goa elections, where AAP opened its account by winning two seats, the ED claimed that Nair “engaged in making cash payments for campaign related work through Chariot Productions (an entity engaged by AAP for advertising and other works for their Goa 2022 assembly elections campaign)”.

In its first prosecution complaint, filed in November 2021, the ED had alleged that the excise policy was “formulated with deliberate loopholes”, which “promoted cartel formations through the back door” to benefit AAP leaders.