Court allows 5 days CBI custody of businessman Vijay Nair in Delhi liquor scam

CBI has increased its investigation into the Delhi liquor scam. On Tuesday evening, Vijay Nair, a close aide of Manish Sisodia and former CEO, was arrested.

New Delhi:A court here on Wednesday allowed the CBI five days of custodial interrogation of businessman Vijay Nair, arrested in the Delhi Excise Policy scam case in which Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is also an accused. The court noted the prosecution's submissions that after being arrested on Tuesday, the accused was not cooperative and evasive on different pretexts.

In view of circumstances, the application filed by CBI is allowed and the accused is remanded to the custody of CBI for a period of five days i.e, till October 3, 2022, Special Judge M K Nagpal said.

The investigation of the case is at a nascent stage and detailed custodial interrogation of the accused is felt necessary not only to unearth the entire conspiracy and the roles played by different accused persons, including the public servants but also to trace out the trail of ill-gotten money which is alleged to have been paid to the accused public servants by way of commission, the court said.

The court further said that the custodial interrogation of the accused was required to confront him with the evidence already collected by the Investigating Officer. Nair will even be required to be questioned with regard to the nature of data, which is stated to have been deleted from his mobile phone by way of formatting, the court said.

According to the prosecution, Nair, who is associated with AAP entered into a criminal conspiracy with others, and in furtherance of the conspiracy, the excise policy of the government of the national capital territory of Delhi (GNCTD) of 2021-2022 was framed and implemented.

The motive was to provide undue and illegal favours to liquor manufacturers and distributors at the cost of the government exchequer and the policy resulted in a huge revenue loss to the government, the prosecution said.

CBI had registered an FIR against the accused along with some public servants and excise department officers, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and other named and unnamed accused persons under the relevant sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act on allegations of various irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy.

According to the FIR, the accused public servants were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions about the Excise Policy, without getting approval from the competent authority. The intent of the accused was to extend undue favours to the liquor licensees for illegal pecuniary benefits, the FIR said.