Delhi Excise Policy Case: Court Dismisses Bail Plea Of AAP Communication Chief And Other Four Accused

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and other excise department officials were also named as accused in the CBI and the ED FIRs.

New Delhi: Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Thursday dismissed the bail petitions of five accused, who were arrested in connection to a money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi Excise Policy scam.

Special Judge M K Nagpal denied bail to Vijay Nair, Abhishek Bonipally, Sameer Mahendru, Sarath P Reddy, and Binoy Babu, saying "The allegation is very serious...it is a case of money laundering, hence, bail cannot be granted at this stage."

Nagpal further noted, "The possibility cannot be ruled out that the accused will not tamper with the evidence while on bail (as the accused have already been charged by the ED for destroying/ altering mobiles and erasing digital data."

The money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and other excise department officials were named as accused in the CBI and the ED FIRs.

Vijay Nair is the former communication head of the Aam Aadmi Party and Sarath P Reddy, Binoy Babu, Sameer Mahendru and Abhishek Boinpally are the South-based businessmen.

The Enforcement Directorate in its second chargesheet in the Liquor excise policy case has 12 accused names are mentioned in the chargesheet in total - 5 arrested persons (Vijay Nair, Sharath Reddy, Binoy Babu, Abhishek Boinpally, Amit Arora) and 7 companies.

According to the ED's additional chargesheet, which claimed that the probe was done under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Delhi Excise Policy, 2021-22 was created by the top leaders of the AAP to continuously generate and channel illegal funds for themselves.

The ED and the CBI had 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 L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority's approval. The beneficiaries diverted "illegal" gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection.

The policy promoted cartel formations through back door awarding an exorbitant wholesale profit margin of 12 per cent and a huge retail profit margin of 185 per cent and incentivized other illegal activities on account of criminal conspiracy by the top leaders of AAP to extract kickbacks from the businesses, stated the ED.