A Delhi court on Thursday sent Vijay Nair, the communication strategist of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), to judicial custody till October 20 in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise police case.
The court, while granting the custodial remand, stated that the allegations appearing in the FIR are serious and a detailed investigation is required for the purpose of arriving at a logical conclusion in due course.
It would be in the interest of justice to allow police custody of accused Vijay Nair.
Nair, recently arrested for his alleged role in the irregularities pertaining to the excise policy of the Delhi government, was produced before the court by the CBI at the end of his remand granted earlier.
Special Judge MK Nagpal on Thursday decided to send Vijay Nair into judicial custody after the Central Bureau of Investigation didn't seek further custodial remand of him and said no more police custody was required.
The court on the last date of hearing also noted that the FIR reflects allegations of the commission of a number of irregularities in the framing and implementation of the Excise Policy of the NCT of Delhi for the years 2021–2022 and various known and unknown persons have been shown instrumental therein at various stages, allegedly performing various roles and undue favours to the licensees for obtaining illegal pecuniary benefits.
Senior Advocate Ramesh Gupta, along with Advocate Mohd Irshad, contended on behalf of the accused that the only plausible ground being pleaded/argued on behalf of the prosecution is that the accused did not cooperate during the course of the investigation and that there was no need for further extension of police custody as he had already undergone the same for five days.
Recently, the same court of MK Nagpal also sent Sameer Mahendru to ED remand. The ED officials arrested Mahendru, Managing Director of Delhi's Jor Bagh-based liquor distributor Indospirit Group, last week.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also filed an ECIR while initiating a money laundering probe in connection with the CBI FIR relating to the framing and execution of the Delhi government's excise policy, in which Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is the accused.
The ED arrested Sameer Mahendru a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Vijay Nair, former chief executive officer of Mumbai-based Only Much Louder, in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy case.
Among the accused public servants are Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari, and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar.
Other accused are Manoj Rai, a former employee of Pernod Ricard; Amandeep Dhal, director of Brindco Sales; Amit Arora, and Dinesh Arora; authorised signatories of Mahadev Liquors; Sunny Marwah, Arun Ramchandra Pillai, and Arjun Pandey.
The ED and the CBI had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Excise Policy; undue favours were extended to licence holders; the licence fee was waived or reduced; and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority's approval.
The beneficiaries diverted "illegal" gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection.
The FIR, which has been instituted on a reference from the Union Home Ministry following a recommendation from Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, said this allegedly caused a loss of Rs 144.36 crore to the exchequer.
