By Atul Krishan
New Delhi, Feb 3 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged in its charge sheet filed in the Delhi excise policy scam that accused Vijay Nair arranged a video call of a co-accused with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and had been living in a government bungalow allotted to Minister Kailash Gehlot.
The ED has alleged in the charge sheet that it was Vijay Nair, who orchestrated this entire scam. Vijay Nair is in jail in the Delhi liquor scam case.
The ED said that Nair is not an ordinary worker of the AAP but a close associate of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and was closely interacting with the Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on the excise policy related matters.
Nair, as per his statement under section 50 of PMLA, 2002, functions from the camp office of Arvind Kejriwal.
Nair, since 2020, has been residing in the government bungalow allotted to Cabinet Minister Kailash Gehlot who is a part of GoM of Excise Policy 2021-22.
Since Nair does not have any other residence in Delhi he started living in Gehlot’s house. Gehlot lives at another private residence in Najafgarh.
“Nair had arranged a meeting of the owner/controller of Indo Spirits Sh Sameer Mahandru, with Arvind Kejriwal and when that didn’t materialise, he arranged a video call through facetime on his phone for Sameer and Arvind Kejriwal. In the video call, Arvind said to Sameer that Vijay was his boy and that Sameer should trust him and carry on with him,” read the charge sheet.
These facts are relevant to mention so as to establish the abatement of his actions in relation to the excise policy scam, by the political leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The ED has alleged in the charge sheet that Nair is In-charge of Media and Communication for the AAP, had no role in the Delhi government. In fact he acted as a broker on behalf of the top leaders of the AAP for getting kickbacks from various stakeholders in the Delhi Liquor business in exchange of favourable outcomes (policy changes) in the Excise Policy of 2021-22, which was being drafted at that time, said the charge sheet.
“He (Nair) even threatened the stakeholders who were not agreeing to his demands that the changes suitable/desired by them may not go through entirely if they do not concede to his demands,” the charge sheet read.
(Atul Krishan can be approached at atul.k@ians.in)
–IANS
atk/dpb
