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ED takes custody of AAP communication in-charge in excise policy case: Report
Delhi excise policy: Both ED and CBI have been investigating the case.
The Enforcement Directorate has taken custody of the Aam Aadmi Party’s communication in-charge - Vijay Nair - in the liquor policy case, reports said. Nair was earlier arrested by the CBI amid investigation over the alleged irregularities in the excise policy case. The probe has been intensifying and, along with it, the political sparring over the matter.
Along with Nair, the ED, which investigates financial frauds, has also taken businessman Abhishek Boinpally - who was also held previously in the case by the CBI - into custody.
The CBI and the ED started investigating the liquor policy case - in which Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is also an accused - following recommendation by Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena in July. Ever since, the AAP and the BJP - ruling at the Centre - have been locked in an intense standoff.
When Nair was arrested in September, the AAP had condemned the action by the CBI in a statement, linking it to elections. "Vijay Nair is communication in-charge of AAP. He was responsible for developing and implementing communication strategies in Punjab earlier and Gujarat now. He has nothing to do with the excise policy. Strangely, he has been arrested by the CBI just now in the excise case," the party had said, news agency PTI had reported.
Meanwhile, Abhishek Boinpally, a Hyderabad-based consultant, has been accused of working as a middleman in “facilitating cartelisation”. Director of around nine companies, he was said to be associated with real estate, mining, quarrying, and chemical products manufacturing firms.
Last week, speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had yet again lashed out at the central agencies as he reiterated that "nothing has been found in the matter".
(With inputs from ANI, PTI)
