Will cooperate with CBI in probe, says excise policy case accused Vijay Nair

New Delhi: Vijay Nair, one of the accused in the excise policy case, said that he would fully cooperate with the CBI in the investigation.

The Central Bureau of Investigation registered an FIR against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and 14 others in connection with alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the excise policy. Excise officials, liquor company executives, dealers and some unidentified public servants and private persons have also been booked in the case.

Vijay Nair is one of the accused in the case. Earlier there were reports stating that Nair ran away abroad.
Replying to these allegations, he said, "I am surprised to see the news claiming that I have run away abroad. I have been here for the last few weeks due to some personal work. It is wrong to say that I am absconding."

"Yesterday, my house in Mumbai was raided. I spoke to the CBI officer on phone and asked her whether I needed to come. She told me that a CBI officer named Mr Alok will get in touch with me and inform me when and where to report. I have neither received any notice nor any call from Mr Alok," he further said.

"I have not done anything wrong so there is no question of running away," he added.

The FIR, filed by CBI said that "facts in the matter prima facie disclose the commission of offences" punishable under section 120-B, 477A IPC and section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 on the part of Manish Sisodia, Arva Gopi Krishna, the then Commissioner (Excise), GNCTD of Delhi, Anand Tiwari, the then Deputy Commissioner (Excise), Pankaj Bhatnagar, Assistant Commissioner (Excise), Vijay Nair, former CEO, Only Much Louder, an entertainment and event management company, Manoj Rai, Amandeep Dhal, Sameer Mahendru, Amit Arora, Dinesh Arora, Sunny Marwah, Arun Ramchandra Pillai, Arjun Pandey and other unidentified public servants and private persons.

The FIR also said that according to reliable sources Vijay Nair, Manoj Rai, Amandeep Dhal, and Sameer Mahendru "are actively involved in irregularities in framing and implementation of excise policy of GNCTD of Delhi for the year 2021-22".
The FIR said that the source further revealed that some of the L-1 Licence holders "are issuing credit notes to retail vendors with an ab-initio intention to divert the funds as an undue pecuniary advantage to public servants".

"In furtherance to this, they are showing false entries in their books of accounts to keep their record straight".
The FIR alleged that Sisodia, Arva Gopi Krishna, Anand Tiwari, and Pankaj Bhatnagar were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to excise policy for the years 2021-22 "without the approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favors to the licensees post tender".

The FIR cited sources as stating that Amit Arora, Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey "are close associates of Manish Sisodia" and are "actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licenses to accused public servants".

According to FIR, the source further revealed that Arun Ramchandra Pillai used to collect undue pecuniary advantage from Sameer Mahendru for onward transmission to the accused public servant through Vijay Nair. It said Arjun Pandey has once collected a huge cash amount of about Rs 2-4 crores from Sameer Mahendru on behalf of Vijay Nair.

Notably, the AAP government announced a rollback of its excise policy in July and said only government outlets would sell liquor in Delhi from August 1. (ANI)