Vijay Nair, the Aam Aadmi Party’s communications coordinator, and businessman Abhishek Boinpally have been detained by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the suspected Delhi Excise Policy scam, news agency reported said on Monday.
In order to get their remand detention, the federal agency will present Nair and Boinpally to a special court. Both suspects have been brought into custody by the ED from Tihar prison. The ED will examine both suspects following their incarceration in relation to its ongoing investigation into the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 money laundering case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation detained Nair on September 27 in connection with his suspected involvement in irregularities with the excise policy of the Delhi government. After LG VK Saxena suggested a CBI investigation, a FIR was filed.
The CBI claims that Nair participated in meetings with the other co-accused, alcohol producers, and distributors in Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi in order to arrange “ill-gotten money through hawala operators.”
Boinpally attended meetings with the other defendants in the case, including liquor industry executives, in Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, according to the CBI probe.
The 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 jail.
Now, ED will question both Nair and Bonipally in the case. The agency’s action came days after it arrested two businessmen among Pharma company head Sharath Chandra Reddy.
In October, the ED had raided nearly three dozen locations in Delhi and Punjab following the arrest of Sameer Mahendru, Managing Director of Delhi’s Jor Bagh-based liquor distributor Indospirit Group, in the case.
Among 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 Bhatnagar.
Other 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 Pandey.
