On August 5, a 6-minute video allegedly of the father of Sunny Marwah, an accused in a liquor scam, went viral on social media. Two parts of the video were initially shared by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Tajinder Singh Bagga on his Twitter account.
OpIndia got access to the complete six-minute video. The video was in Punjabi. In most of the video, the person who appears to be Kulvinder Singh Marwah, Sunny’s father, was talking about how changes in the liquor policy favoured the Aam Aadmi Party.
Another video exposing Fraudia @ArvindKejriwal Face pic.twitter.com/j2INnm39WU
— Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga (@TajinderBagga) September 5, 2022
At the beginning of the video, Marwah claimed that they were getting 80 per cent profit following the new policy. He said, “Out of the total cost, 20 per cent is the cost of the item, and 80 per cent is our share. This is why we give one-plus-one offer.” When asked how such huge margins were possible, Marwah said, “They told us we could sell our products at any price, but we have to give them a fixed amount. They took Rs 235 crores from us and told us we can open as many shops as we want and do whatever we want.”
He further stated that they paid 235 crores, but there were several others who had paid Rs 500 crores and above. He added, “We were able to get the license at such a low price because we filled tender at a lower rate. The rest of them had to take the license as per the tender they filled.” Marwah said he filled tenders for areas where shops were cheap.
He said with low-cost shops, they were able to sell cheap brands, and as the price of the items they were selling was low and margins were high, many retailers started giving a one-plus-one offer, and some even offered one-plus-two.
When asked if the margins were that high earlier, Marwah said, “Earlier out of 100 paise, 20 paisa was the cost of the items, and the government charged 70 paise. We only got ten paise as a share. Now the government has changed the rules, and we buy items for 20 paise and do whatever we want. We only have to give a fixed amount.”
At this point, Marwah made an explosive revelation. He said, “They took Rs 60 crores from us. Later, Rs 60 crores were paid to another person.” When those who were sitting with him asked if that went to the government’s account, he said, “You are intelligent,” and hinted that the money allegedly went to the party and not to the government.
Furthermore, Marwah said the only mistake government made was that they gave licenses to blacklisted companies. They discussed that AAP favoured those who were loyal to the party while giving out licenses and those who were willing to pay them for the license.
Later Marwah said they (the government) should not have charged anything in the beginning. He said, “The 12 per cent system was good. Imagine a truck arrives at your place. The middleman would have happily given 12 per cent.” He added, “We did not deal with the middleman. It was decided that we would pay them six per cent. The problem is not paying them six per cent, but the problem is how are we going to arrange the six per cent.”
Marwah then explained how difficult it is to pay money under-the-table. He said, “Imagine we sold Rs 100 crores worth of items. In that case, we have to pay them Rs 6 crores. That is not a problem. The problem is, how are we going to make that Rs 6 crores black? Nowadays, cash is not lying around that we pick it and give them the money. It is very difficult.”
Sunny Marwah is accused in the Liquor Scam
On August 19, CBI released a list of accused in the Liquor Scam, with Deputy CM of Delhi Manish Sisodia as the first accused. Sunny Marwah, the signatory of M/S Mahadev Liquors, was noted as accused number 12. M/s Mahadev Liquors, a proprietorship firm, was granted an L-1 License. Sunny Marwah is the authorized signatory of the firm. Sunny Marwah is also a director in companies being managed by the family of the Late Ponty Chadha. The CBI source has reportedly informed that Sunny Marwah is in close contact with accused public servants and has been regularly giving undue pecuniary advantage to them. The CBI has booked all 15 accused under sections 120B, 477A of the Indian Penal Code and section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 (amended in 2018).
