The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday arrested Vijay Nair, one of the accused in the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-2022 case. Vijay Nair, a close aide of Delhi Dy CM Manish Sisodia, was one of the 15 people who were named in the FIR filed by the CBI in connection with the allegations of corruption against Manish Sisodia and other AAP leaders in connection to the Delhi liquor scam.
The FIR filed by CBI in the liquor scam stated that Nair was “actively involved in irregularities in framing and implementation of the excise policy of GNCTD of Delhi for the year 2021-22.”
Association between Vijay Nair and Aam Aadmi Party
Vijay Nair was the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a Mumbai-based entertainment and event management company named Only Much Louder (OML). He worked as a ‘part-time volunteer’ of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in the run-up to the 2020 Delhi State Legislative Assembly polls. During his stint with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, he helped organise party events and manage social media handles.
AAP MLA Atishi Marlena told Caravan that Nair was an ‘ad-hoc worker’, a claim denied by the party’s national council member Ankit Lal. He pointed out that the ex-OML CEO has been associated with AAP for over 5-6 years. Lal stated that Nair is his go-to person for strategising digital campaigns.
A news report published in The Times of India shows that Vijay Nair has been with the Aam Aadmi Party since January 2014.’Even before being personally benefitted by the association, the ex-OML CEO had confessed to donating to the AAP. As such, it came as a surprise when Atishi Marlena introduced Vijay Nair as an ‘Adhoc worker’, who was not in a position of power.
Allegations of sexual harassment against Vijay Nair
In an article published in November 2018, Caravan cited victim testimonies to claim that the ex-OML CEO created an unsafe and misogynistic environment for the female workers.
Caravan alleged that the man, behind India’s premier music festivals, asked a woman to get into a bathtub with him. It claimed that Nair engaged in sexual activity during a work call with a woman, without her consent.
The article went on to say that Nair messaged his female co-workers regularly and how they were caught in a state of fix while trying to refuse his sexual advances.
Allegations of corruption in the Excise Policy Scam
At the heart of the controversy is the Delhi Excise Policy of 2021-2022. The now-scrapped liquor policy of the Delhi government was originally proposed in 2020. After coming into effect in November 2021, it changed the manner in which alcohol was sold in Delhi.
Until then, only government-owned liquor vendors were permitted to sell alcohol. The Delhi Excise Policy 2021-2022 introduced private players in the market. The National Capital was divided into 32 zones and a total of 27 private vendors were to ply in each zone.
Every municipal ward had 2-3 liquor vendors operating in the area. The private liquor shops were allowed to attract crowds by offering discounts on the Maximum Retail Price (MRP). They could deliver liquor at home, and even keep shops open till 3 am in the morning.
The drastic policy change resulted in a 27% increase in government revenue to ₹8900 crores. At the same time, it marked the complete exit of the Delhi government from the liquor business.
While the objective of Excise Policy 2021-2022 was to end black marketing and the liquor mafia, the AAP government soon came under fire over allegations of corruption. Naresh Kumar, who was appointed the Chief Secretary of Delhi in April 2022, found irregularities and procedural lapses in the new liquor policy.
The Chief Secretary prepared a report and sought the response of Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the head of the Excise Department. The report blamed the Deputy CM for making changes to the excise policy without the authorisation of the Lieutenant Governor and providing ‘undue benefits’ to the liquor vendors.
Manish Sisodia reportedly waived off ₹144.36 crores on the license fee, to be paid by the private liquor vendors, under the garb of the Coronavirus pandemic. He also caused loss to the Excise Department and benefitted liquor licensees by waiving the import pass fee of ₹50 per beer case.
All these changes were made without the final approval of the Lieutenant Governor and thus considered illegal under the Delhi Excise Rules of 2010 and Transaction of Business Rules of 1993. The CBI had therefore registered a case against Vijay Nair and 14 others.