In connection with the excise policy, two cases have been registered: one by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the other by the Enforcement Department (ED) for alleged money laundering.
The case was brought about as a result of a report that was presented to Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena in July 2022 by Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar. The report pointed to alleged procedural errors that occurred during the formation of the policy.
It was said in the study that "arbitrary and unilateral decisions" made by Manish Sisodia, who was serving as the Excise Minister at the time, had led to "financial losses to the exchequer" that were believed to be greater than Rs 580 crore.
The report asserted that "kickbacks" received by the AAP Delhi government and AAP leaders from proprietors and operators of alcohol businesses in exchange for preferential treatment, such as discounts and extensions in license fee, waiver on penalties and relief due to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, etc., were used to "influence" the Assembly elections that were held in Punjab and Goa at the beginning of 2022. In the end, the AAP was successful in becoming the government in Punjab.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was notified of this report, which ultimately resulted in Sisodia's detention. The Enforcement Department (ED) then informed a court in March that the alleged profits of crime amounted to more than Rs 292 crore, and that it was necessary to prove the modus operandi. This was after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named Sisodia and 14 other defendants in its first information report (FIR), including Vijay Nair, who was in charge of communications for the AAP.
In its allegations, the ED stated that the "scam" consisted of transferring the wholesale liquor business to private businesses and establishing a margin of 12% in exchange for a kickback of 6%. It was in November 2021 when the Enforcement Department filed its first prosecution complaint, in which it stated that the policy had been "formulated with deliberate loopholes" that "promoted cartel formations through the back door" for the advantage of AAP leaders.
Moreover, the Enforcement Department (ED) asserted that leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had accepted bribes amounting to one hundred crore rupees from a group of individuals known as the "South Group."
It was recently reported that K Kavitha, the leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the daughter of the previous Chief Minister of Telangana, K Chandrasekhar Rao, was taken into custody on suspicion of being a member of the 'South Group' organisation. Others who are suspected of being members of the gang include Raghav Magunta, the son of Ongole Member of Parliament Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, and P. Sarath Chandra Reddy, the son of P. V. Ramprasad Reddy and a co-founder of Aurobindo Pharma, which is situated in Hyderabad. This group "secured uninhibited access, undue favors, and attained stakes in established wholesale businesses and multiple retail zones (over and above what was allowed in the policy)," according to the official statement issued by the European Department.
How Kejriwal connected to the case?
After Kavitha was taken into custody, on March 18, the Enforcement Directorate made the initial allegation that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was involved in the case as a conspirator. This was the first time those allegations were made.
According to the findings of the investigation conducted by the ED, Ms. K. Kavitha and a number of other individuals plotted with the top leaders of the AAP, including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, in order to obtain favors in the formation and execution of the Delhi excise policy policy. It was alleged by the spokesperson for the Enforcement Department on Monday that she was involved in the payment of Rs 100 crore to the leaders of the AAP in exchange for these favors. "A continuous stream of illegal funds in the form of kickback from wholesalers was generated for the AAP as a result of the acts of corruption and conspiracy that occurred during the formulation and implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22,"
Earlier, in a supplementary prosecution charge, the ED had stated that Kejriwal himself had spoken to one of the main accused, Sameer Mahendru, over a video chat and instructed him to continue working with co-accused Vijay Nair, whom he referred to as "his boy." This communication took place during the course of a video call.
