On Thursday, February 2, the Enforcement Directorate said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) used money made from the Delhi Liquor Scam for its election campaign in Goa. The assembly elections were held in Goa last year, wherein AAP had to be content with just two seats.
In the chargesheet submitted in the case, the ED stated, “Investigation of the trail of this kickback so far has revealed that a portion of these funds was used in the election campaign of the AAP.”
The ED claims that over Rs 70 lakh in cash was paid to the volunteers who made up the AAP’s survey teams. The investigation agency claimed that Vijay Nair, the party’s communications coordinator, told several people involved in the campaign-related activity to take the payments in cash.
Furthermore, ED has said that Vijay Nair received kickbacks of Rs 100 crore on behalf of the Aam Aadmi Party from a ‘South Group’ that included Aurobindo Pharma director P Sarath Chandra Reddy, YSR Congress Party’s MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, and his son Raghav Magunta.
Abhishek Boinpally, a businessman from Hyderabad, allegedly conspired with Dinesh Arora, an aide to Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, to facilitate the transfer of the said funds.
According to an NDTV report, the investigation agency also said that Vijay Nair, the communications coordinator of AAP, set up a FaceTime video call from his phone between Sameer Mahendru, the head of Indospirits, and Arvind Kejriwal.
Moreover, Enforcement Directorate added that Kejriwal allegedly told Sameer Mahendru to trust Vijay Nair.
“Vijay is my boy, you should trust him and carry on with him,” Kejriwal allegedly told Mahendru.
Reacting to the development, CM Kejriwal termed the chargesheet as ‘complete fiction’ alleging that the ED operates to topple governments and to buy and sell MLAs.
In the Delhi liquor scam, according to the chief secretary’s report, cartelization and monopolies were taking place in the liquor trade under the new liquor policy. It was also alleged that there was an illegal distribution of liquor licenses to companies that had violated the terms and conditions of the New Excise Policy 2021-22.
Acting on the Chief Secretary’s report, Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena ordered a CBI probe in July, and days after that, the Delhi govt announced the decision to scrap the new liquor policy and revert to the old one.
