AAP leaders used Delhi excise policy as device to generate illegal funds: ED

AAP leader Vijay Nair arrested in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy case received Rs 100 crore in kickbacks from the south group controlled by some businessmen and politicians the Enforcement Directorate ED has informed a local courtLeaders of the Aam Aadmi Party AAP some of whom are part of the government considered the policy as a device to allegedly generate illegal funds at the cost of the state exchequer it told the court on WednesdayAs per the investigation carried so far Vijay Nair on behalf of leaders of AAP has at least received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore from a group called south group controlled by Sarath Reddy Ms K Kavitha Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy by various persons including Amit Arora the ED said adding Amit Arora disclosed this during the recording of his statementOfficials identified Kavitha as the MLC daughter of Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar RaoAlso Read Delhi excise policy Court sends businessman Amit Arora to 7day ED custodyKavitha on Thursday said she and her party leaders are ready to face any inquiryWe state that we will face any kind of inquiry If the agencies come and ask us questions we will certainly answer But tarnishing leaders images by giving selective leaks to the media people will refute it Kavitha said in HyderabadThe agency also said that at least 36 accused including Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and a PA of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal destroyed or used 170 phones in order to conceal evidence of kickbacks worth thousand of crores of rupees in the alleged scamThe policy was formulated with deliberate loopholes inbuilt mechanism to facilitate illegal activities and is marred with deliberate inconsistencies which when looked deeply reflect malafide intentions of policymakers it allegedThis policy though on the face of it has promising and laudable objectives of stopping cartelisation and encouraging fair trade practices in reality it promoted cartel formations through back door awarded exorbitant wholesale 12 per cent and huge retail 185 per cent profit margins and incentivised other illegal activities on account of criminal conspiracy of leaders of AAP Aam Aadmi Party it allegedThe federal probe agency also claimed that the Delhi government lost revenue of 12 per cent or Rs 581 croreonly to fill the personal coffers of leaders of the AAP and overall the total loss of revenue due to alleged irregularities in the policy stood at Rs 2873 crore including loss of licence feeThe agency made these claims while seeking the remand of Amit Arora director of liquor company Buddy Retail Pvt Limited from a local court after his arrest on Tuesday night The court on Wednesday sent him to ED custody till December 7An attempt was also made to see that the evidence pertaining to the commission of this scam running into thousands of crores were either destroyed which would contain valuable digital data and material to prove further kickbacks the agency allegedIt is pertinent to note that major evidences with respect to the subject liquor scam were stored in digital formats both in mobile phones and laptops However as soon as the scam was unearthed and the case was handed over to investigating agencies large number of digital devices were found to be destroyedchanged by the persons involvedsuspected to be involved in this case the ED allegedAt least 36 accused or suspects involved in the excise scam have destroyed or used 170 phones as per IMEI analysis it allegedThere is no earthly reason for the suspects to change their mobile phones specifically the phones that were used during the period of the scam it saidThe magnitude of the destruction is such that most suspects liquor barons senior government officials the excise minister of Delhi Sisodia and other suspects have changed their phones multiple times it said adding the cost of the phones involved in these instances is about Rs 138 croreFortunately it told the court the ED has been able to recover 17 out of 170 phones otherwise the kickbacks would have been much more and involvement of other important persons would have surfaced more clearlyThe ED annexed a report in the remand note saying Sisodia handled four different mobile numbers and their IMEIs changed 14 times between June 6 and October 14 this yearInternational mobile equipment identity IMEI is a unique number that identifies a cellphone However dual SIM phones can have two such unique codesThe ED also listed the cellphone activity of Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot claiming he handled a single SIM number but his IMEI changed three timesIt also furnished the IMEI change activity of other accused involved in the case such as AAP communications incharge Vijay Nair liquor businessman Sameer Mahandru earlier arrested in the case Amit Arora Abhishek Boinpally earlier arrested and Chief Minister Kejriwals PA Bibhav KumarThe agency also said that a person named Kavitha Kalvakathla used two SIMS and her IMEI changed 10 timesThe ED told the court that in the phones recovered by it data was found to be deletedformattedIt is in this background and hardship that the ED had to investigate Despite this incriminating material has been unearthed by the ED through the arduous process of extraction and examination of numerous devices the ED saidThe agency alleged that Amit Arora played a crucial role in the alleged scam and he has been instrumental in connecting the cartels of liquor manufacturers wholesalers and retailers to the political leadership and facilitating six per cent kickbacks by working closely with Dinesh Arora another accused whom the CBI has made approver in the case and Nair arrested earlier who were working on behalf of AAP leadersIt alleged that the political leaders of AAP received kickbacks at three levels by introducing irregularities in the implementation of the Delhi excise policy which has now been scrappedThe ED said Nair was not an ordinary worker of the AAP but a close associate of Kejriwal It said Nair recorded statements with the ED saying he functions from the camp office of Kejriwal and lives in the government bungalow allotted to Gahlot who ironically lives in Najafgarh in southwest DelhiThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever