Excise policy case: ED takes custody of AAP communication in-charge Vijay Nair, bizman Abhishek Boinpally

The Enforcement Directorate ED has taken into custody the Aam Aadmi Partys communication incharge Vijay Nair and businessman Abhishek Boinpally in connection with the alleged Delhi Excise Policy scam for questioning sources said on MondayThe federal agency will produce both Nair and Boinpally before a special court seeking their remand custody The ED has taken both the accused into custody from Tihar jailAfter getting the custody of both accused the ED will question them in connection with its ongoing probe into Delhi Excise Policy 202122 money laundering caseNair was arrested on September 27 by the Central Bureau of Investigation for his alleged role in irregularities pertaining to the Delhi governments excise policy An FIR was lodged after LG VK Saxena recommended a CBI probeThe CBI has alleged that Nair was involved in meeting the other coaccused and liquor manufacturers as well as distributors at various hotels in Hyderabad Mumbai and Delhi for arranging illgotten money through hawala operatorsAlso read Excise policy BJP challenges CM Arvind Kejriwal to undergo lie detector testThe CBI investigation has also revealed that Boinpally was part of the meetings with the other accused persons in the case including liquor businessmen in Delhi Mumbai and HyderabadThe central agency had told a court that Boinpally was part of the conspiracy to launder money along with another accused liquor businessman Sameer Mahendru who has already been arrested and is currently lodged in Tihar jailNow ED will question both Nair and Bonipally in the case The agencys action came days after it arrested two businessmen among Pharma company head Sharath Chandra ReddyIn October the ED had raided nearly three dozen locations in Delhi and Punjab following the arrest of Sameer Mahendru Managing Director of Delhis Jor Baghbased liquor distributor Indospirit Group in the caseAmong the accused persons in the case were Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia the then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj BhatnagarOther persons 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 PandeyThe ED and the CBI have alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Excise Policy undue favours were extended to licence holders the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L1 licence was extended without the competent authoritys approval The beneficiaries diverted illegal gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detectionAs alleged the Excise Department has decided to refund the Earnest Money Deposit of about Rs 30 crore to a successful tenderer against the set rules Even though there was no enabling provision a waiver on tendered licence fee was allowed from December 28 2021 to January 27 2022 due to COVID19This allegedly caused a loss of Rs 14436 crore to the exchequer which has been instituted on a reference from the Union Home Ministry following a recommendation from Delhi LieutenantGovernor Vinai Kumar SaxenaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever