Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal arrested: Other high-profile arrests in the excise policy case | Delhi News
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal arrested: Other high-profile arrests in the excise policy case | Delhi News
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Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi and Aam Aadmi (AAP) supremo, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday night in connection with the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy case. The policy, implemented in November 2021, was scrapped in July 2022 due to alleged irregularities in its implementation and procedural lapses in its formulation.
Since then, the ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) launched a series of investigations into the matter post a report by Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena in July 2022, with both investigating agencies leaving a trail of high-profile arrests in the case.
Prior to CM Kejriwal’s arrest, on March 15, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha was arrested by the ED from her Hyderabad home. She has been sent to ED custody until March 23. The ED alleged Kavitha as one of the prominent members of the ‘South group’ who secured uninhibited access, undue favours, attained stakes in established wholesale businesses and multiple retail zones (over and above what was allowed in the policy)”.
In October 2023, AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh was also arrested by the ED, which marked a key arrest in the case. The central agency accused Singh of being a “key conspirator” in the Delhi excise policy irregularities and of collecting kickbacks from the alleged scam.
Another major arrest in the case took place in February 2023 when Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested by the CBI. While lodged at Tihar Jail and awaiting his bail plea hearing, Sisodia was again arrested by the ED in its probe into the matter in March 2023. The ED chargesheet accused him of extra-procedural interference in framing the new excise policy, tweaking it for the benefit of select liquor entities, and causing a loss of several hundred crores to the state exchequer in excise revenue.
In September of 2022, AAP communications in-charge Vijay Nair was arrested by the CBI in the liquor scam and in November, the ED charged him for the same. The ED accusations against Nair were of being a middleman between the ‘South Group’ which allegedly gave Rs 100 crore as kickbacks to enter the liquor retail segment in the capital. The ED also accused him of laundering money received as kickbacks during AAP’s Goa Assembly poll campaign.
The first arrest in the Delhi excise policy was that of AAP leader and former Delhi minister Satyendra Jain by the ED in May 2022. After spending a year in Tihar Jail, Jain was granted interim bail on medical grounds in May 2023. However, he was lodged behind bars in March 2024 after nine months of relief.
Two other notable figures arrested in this excise policy case are Delhi-based restaurateur Dinesh Arora — charged by the CBI in 2022 — and Managing Director of M/s Indospirit Group Sameer Mahendru — charged by the ED — in September of the same year.
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