NEW DELHI: The custodial remand of AAP’s communication in-charge Vijay Nair and Hyderabad-based businessman Abhishek Boinpally in connection with the money laundering probe into the Delhi Excise policy has been extended by five more days.
Special Judge MK Nagpal extended their custody after ED counsel Naveen Matta submitted that the two needed to be confronted with more witnesses who have been summoned by the agency. The ED told the special PMLA court that two more witnesses, Chandan Reddy and Gochi Babu, were summoned for deposition following fresh revelation during custodial interrogation. Nair and Boinpally were arrested on November 14 and were remanded in 5-day ED custody.
Sources said that both the accused were confronted by the Sharath Chandra Reddy of Aurobindo Pharma and Binoy Babu, general manager of liquor company Pernod Ricard.
Nair, the former CEO of Only Much Louder (OML), an entertainment and event management company closely associated with the AAP, was arrested in September while Boinpally was apprehended last month.
The ED said Nair was the “main decision maker” of the policy and he was meeting “everybody” from the liquor industry at both wholesale and retail levels. “It is revealed during the investigation that the excise policy was formulated with 12 per cent profit margin for L1 wholesalers. Out of this 12 per cent, 6 per cent was earmarked as a kickback,” the ED said.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation, Nair and Boinpally were actively involved in irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy. They influenced the distribution of liquor licenses to various traders and distributors and were involved in large-scale cartelization, it said. The CBI registered case on the complaint of the L-G VK Saxena who said that several procedures were tweaked in order to benefit private liquor barons and individuals and that an investigation must be carried out to find kickbacks.