Explained: The Delhi Excise Policy case and events leading to the arrest of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26 after he was summoned for questioning in the Delhi Excise Policy case..The agency claimed that Sisodia did not “cooperate” and remained “evasive” in his replies during the interrogation..On Monday, Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court remanded Sisodia to CBI custody till March 4..The arrest of the Deputy CM prompts the need to look into the events leading to it, as well as the status of the cases being investigated by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED)..Why has CBI arrested Sisodia?.The arrest of the senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) politician followed CBI's allegations of irregularities in the framing and implementation of Delhi’s Excise Policy of 2021.Apart from Sisodia, who also holds the Excise portfolio, 14 others, including a few public servants of the Excise Department, were named in the first information report (FIR) registered by the agency. Sisodia was asked appear before the investigation agency on February 19, but sought a week’s time. The CBI accepted his request and asked him to appear for questioning on February 26..According to CBI, Sisodia had “evaded" questions, including those relating to “his incriminating role” seen from the evidence collected by the agency previously on October 17, 2022. .On February 26, the CBI arrested him saying he was being “evasive” and “uncooperative”, and had denied his involvement in the alleged scam, despite evidence demonstrating the opposite..It is alleged that two close associates of Sisodia - Amit Arora and Arjun Pandey - have been actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees to the accused public servants.According to a statement of Sisodia’s secretary C Arvind recorded by the investigation agency, he was asked to prepare a report on the basis of a document which offered wholesale business to private entities while fixing a 12% profit margin for them in order to receive 6% kickbacks.It is alleged that these proposals were contrary to the suggestions of the expert committee, headed by the then Excise Commissioner, and passed without any discussion in the meetings of the group of ministers on the Policy framework..Genesis of the Excise Policy case.On August 17, 2022, the CBI registered a case in connection with the alleged irregularities over the Delhi Excise Policy for 2021-22. The case was registered after the Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena made a complaint on July 20, 2022. .On the basis of the CBI case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered a case on the money laundering aspect against the accused persons on August 22, 2022..A criminal conspiracy was alleged on the part of Sisodia and others including unidentified and unnamed persons/entities during the stage of the Policy’s formulation.The conspiracy reportedly stemmed from some of the loopholes “intentionally” left or created in the Policy. These were allegedly meant to be exploited later in terms of favouring some licensees and conspirators post the tender process..The CBI filed a chargesheet on November 25, 2022 against Sameer Mahendru (CEO of IndoSpirits), Vijay Nair and others from Andhra Pradesh along with some Excise officials. .Details show that there were alleged kickbacks through hawala channels paid by a few persons in the liquor business from “South India” to some public servants of the ruling AAP to achieve the objectives of “monopoly and cartelisation” among liquor manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers..The kickbacks were reportedly going to be returned to the “persons from South” either out of profit margins of the wholesalers or through credit notes issued by the wholesalers to the retail vends owned or controlled by those from the Southern part of India. .Arrests, chargesheets and allegations.Sisodia's arrest comes after the arrest of six persons - all of whom are currently in judicial custody..The CBI has so far chargesheeted six persons:Sameer Mahandru, owner of Indo Spirits and his father in law owns Khao Gali Restaruants, Bubbly Beverages Pvt Ltd, Indo Spirit Distribution Ltd (partner in Indo Spirits).Vijay Nair, AAP communications officer and former CEO of event management company Only Much Louder. He has been termed as someone who is "not an ordinary worker of AAP" but a "close associate of Chief Minster Arvind Kejriwal" and someone who has been "closely interacting with the Deputy CM" for matters related to the Excise Policy. The agencies claimed that he had orchestrated the "entire scam". Abhishek Boinpally, businessman accused of transfer of kickbacks and representative of the South group.Gautam Mootha, shareholder-director of India Ahead News and Andhra Prabha Publications.Arun Pillai, partner in Indo Spirits on behalf of K Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao.Kuldeep Singh, Deputy Excise Commissioner.Narinder Singh, Assistant Excise Commissioner..In a nutshell, the CBI has alleged that Vijay Nair conspired with the others by utilising his position in the ruling AAP and took an advance of ₹20-30 crore from Boinpally through his associate and co-accused Dinesh Arora (who has now turned approver and has been pardoned). This money was allegedly used to influence officers of Pernod Ricard India and Delhi Excise Department officials to get the distributorship of the former and an L1 license for Indo Spirits, which was not entitled to the same..The ED, on the other hand, has filed two chargesheets in the case on the aspect of money laundering. On November 26, 2022, the ED chargesheeted Sameer Mahendru, Khao Gali Restaurants Pvt Ltd, Bubbly Beverages Pvt Ltd, Indo Spirits and Indo Spirit Distribution Ltd. In a supplementary chargesheet filed subsequently, the agency highlighted the role of Nair, a few companies and others, namely:P Sarath Reddy (Aurobindo Pharma), a key member of the South group, accused of paying ₹100 crore kickbacks to government functionaries through Nair. Benoy Babu, regional head of Pernod Ricard, accused of providing ₹200 crore in financial support to retailers for “hatching conspiracy of cartelisation”. "Babu is involved in the concealment of the true nature of the transaction and projecting it as untainted property by portraying the corporate guarantee as financial support when it was actually an investment from the accused no 12, Pernod Ricard into these retailers with a condition of keeping 35% stocks of Pernod brands out of the total stock in the retail zone at any point of time,” it alleged..In addition, while Boinpally allegedly facilitated payment of ₹100 crore kickbacks, Amit Arora, owner of Buddy Retail and KSJM Spirits reportedly bribed Excise officials for procurement of a wholesale licence for his company..ED further alleged that the Excise Policy promoted cartel formations through backdoor channels, awarded exorbitant wholesale profit margins and huge retail profit margins, while incentivising other illegal activities on account of criminal conspiracy by the top leaders of AAP to extract kickbacks from the businesses..Coming back to Sisodia, some major allegations in the supplementary ED chargesheet include:. Sisodia, on Nair’s request, directed the Excise Commissioner to grant L1 license to Indo Spirits despite there being complaints of cartelisation against Indo Spirit Group's entity that had applied for the license. Major manufacturers such as Pernod Ricard were directed by Nair to give their wholesale distributorship to Indo Spirits, which was a “vehicle to recoup the advance kickbacks” paid by the South group to the leaders of AAP through Nair. Large-scale destruction of a digital evidence stored in high-end smart phones. During a one-year period, accused and suspects of the offence of money laundering have used or changed or destroyed 170 phones, and 153 such phones could not be recovered. Although 17 phones were recovered, they were found to be formatted. The proceeds of crime were utilised by AAP representatives both within the government and outside. Some of the money trail led the agency to discover its utilisation in the Goa election campaign by AAP..LG approved Excise Policy, then became complainant: Counsel for Manish Sisodia as Delhi court reserves order in CBI plea for custody