NEW DELHI: A Delhi Court on Thursday denied bail to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) communication overseer Vijay Nair, liquor businessman Sameer Mahandru and three others in a money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) allegedly linked to the Delhi government’s now scrapped Excise Policy.
Three others include--P Sarath Chandra Reddy, whole-time director and promoter of Aurobindo Pharma and Hyderabad- based businessman Abhishek Boinpally and liquor giant Pernod Ricard’s executive, Benoy Babu.
Special Judge MK Nagpal, in the order, said the court is of the considered opinion that none of the accused deserves to be released on bail in this case at this stage of proceedings as the ‘allegations made against them are quite serious.’
The court observed that the individual proceeds of crime being attributed to the accused persons have been shown by the ED on a much higher side and even the amount of losses allegedly suffered by the Government exchequer is alleged to be ‘highly exaggerated’ and a major part thereof may not be attributable to the conduct of accused persons. “..but the same cannot be made a ground to enlarge the applicants on bail in this case under the PMLA where serious allegations are found to have been levelled against them of being part of a criminal conspiracy to bribe the public servants in politics or otherwise and holding different offices and positions in Delhi,” it was noted in the order.
The present ED case registered under money laundering is connected to the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI)’s FIR under criminal conspiracy, in which Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and 14 others were named as accused, including some other public servants of the city’s Excise Department and the bail applicants-- Nair and Mahandru.
However, the other three applicants (Reddy, Boinpally and Babu) were not named as accused in the FIR.
CBI alleged that at the formulation of the excise policy in the city, huge amounts of money were paid as kickbacks against public servants involved in the liquor trade. Around Rs 20-30 crores were allegedly paid to Nair, Sisodia, some other persons of Delhi government and some liquor businessmen from South India.
As per ED, around Rs 100 crores were paid to the public servants involved in the scam resulting in a total loss of around Rs 2873 crores to the city government.
Opposing the ED allegation, it was argued that the ED had falsely projected a figure of Rs 2873 crores. The amounts are related to the non-operation of retail zone vends, surrender of licenses, waivers of license fees given due to Covid, refund of license fees or security amount, etc.
It was also argued that the alleged South lobby is nothing but a vague and unidentifiable group of persons and thus, the source of payment of alleged kickbacks are never identified.
On the other hand, it was argued by the ED that Reddy was an important member of the 'South lobby' which was controlling nine retail zones and about 30 per cent of the Delhi liquor market.