Delhi liquor policy: How AAP top brass got entangled in it

Animesh Singh

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New Delhi, March 23

The contentious Delhi liquor policy case finally turned out to be the Achilles’ heel of CM Arvind Kejriwal as he became the most high-profile leader to be arrested in the case, after his former deputy Manish Sisodia and the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh. Kejriwal’s arrest came two days after the formal notification for the Lok Sabha elections.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was remanded in six-day ED custody by a Delhi court on March 22 after the agency termed him the “kingpin” and “key conspirator” in the alleged scam.

Kejriwal received nine summons between November 2023 and March 2024, but he did not appear before the authorities. He was arrested on March 21, 2024, after the Delhi HC rejected his plea seeking protection from arrest.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju said Kejriwal demanded kickbacks from the South Group in exchange for providing favours to them in the formulation and implementation of the excise policy.

“A sum of around Rs 45 crore out of the kickbacks was used by AAP in the Goa campaign in 2021-22,” Raju said. Kejriwal was non-cooperative during the search and did not give correct facts, that’s why the agency wanted to interrogate him further, he added.

Former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia was arrested in February 2023 for his alleged role in the liquor scam. He was arrested by the CBI due to his alleged involvement in the destruction of evidence.

According to investigating agencies, some contentious provisions were added to the liquor policy, which were not part of its first draft. Sisodia reportedly could not satisfactorily explain how those provisions got included in the final draft.

AAP’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh was arrested by the ED in October 2023 in connection with a money laundering case linked to the Delhi liquor policy.

The ED had contended in the Delhi High Court that Singh was involved in creating a special purpose vehicle to launder the “proceeds of crime” generated from the business arising out of the changes in the Delhi liquor policy.