Delhi Excise Policy Case: ED Arrests Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) media promotion in-charge Vijay Nair and businessman Abhishek Boinpally under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with an investigation into the Delhi excise policy scam.

Earlier, the two were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and remanded to judicial custody after questioning.

The name of Boinpally, a prominent businessman from Hyderabad, had cropped up during the course of investigation. He was called to join the probe but did not cooperate with the probe agency and allegedly tried to mislead it. He was not named in the FIR.

Nair, Delhi's Jor Bagh-based businessman, was the first one to be arrested by the CBI.

The investigation started with LG Vinai Kumar Saxena recommending a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the implementation of Delhi's Excise Policy 2021-22.

The Delhi Excise Policy, implemented from November 17 last year, was scrapped by the Arvind Kejriwal government in July this year following a CBI probe into its implementation.

The ED is investigating the money trail in the alleged scam.

The CBI had alleged that Nair had entered into a criminal conspiracy with others, and in furtherance of the conspiracy, the excise policy 2021-2022 of the Delhi government was framed and implemented.

The motive was to provide undue and illegal favours to liquor manufacturers and distributors at the cost of the government exchequer, and the policy had resulted in a huge revenue loss to the government, the agency had stated.

Boinpally was arrested by the CBI last month for allegedly lobbying for certain liquor businessmen based in southern India. The CBI had told the court that the businessman was arrested after statements by witnesses and the perusal of bank accounts revealed that he was part of repeated meetings in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad with other accused persons and liquor traders in connection with the formulation of the liquor policy and to benefit from its provisions.

He was part of a conspiracy in pursuance of which he had transferred money through hawala channels to co-accused Vijay Nair through another co-accused Dinesh Arora prior to the implementation of the now-withdrawn excise policy during the period from November 2021 to July 2022, the agency had said.

The money transferred by co-accused Sameer Mahendru of M/s Indospirits also finally landed in Boinpally's account, and he was not able to satisfactorily explain the receipt of the said money, it had said.