Delhi excise policy case: Second catch in 24 hours, ED arrests Sameer Mahendru

Amid ongoing face-off between AAP and BJP, the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday morning arrested liquor businessman Sameer Mahendru in connection with its money laundering investigation into alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.

The arrest of Mahendru, managing director of Indospirits that distributes liquor, comes a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Vijay Nair, AAP’s communications chief and a close aide of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. As per media report, the FIR of the central agency has alleged that Arjun Pandey, an associate of Sisodia, had once collected about Rs 2-4 crore in cash from liquor businessman Mahendru on behalf of Nair, former CEO of Only Much Louder (OML), an event management company.

“Source further revealed that Arun Ramchandra Pillai used to collect undue pecuniary advantage from Sameer Mahendru of IndoSpirit for onward transmission to the accused public servants through Nair,” it claimed.

The CBI has invoked IPC section related to criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act in its FIR filed against 15 entities.

Nair, a well-known name in the entertainment circuit, had started OML as a management company for Indie bands but gradually shifted focus towards comedy scenes with some noted standup artists, comedy collectives and live music shows, reported DNA.

Nair’s leadership at OML came under controversy including #MeToo allegation which was strongly denied by him, according to the news outlet.

“Vijay Nair is communication in-charge of AAP. He was responsible for developing and implementing communication strategies in Punjab earlier and Gujarat now,” the AAP statement read. Commenting on the arrest, the party said it was “part of BJP’s ongoing attempt to crush AAP and obstruct AAP’s Gujarat campaign.”

Both the ED and the CBI are investigating a scam in liquor policy, which allegedly benefitted some major liquor wholesalers/distributors and retailers while knocking out the smaller vendors from the tendering process.

According to Hindustan Times report, the FIR registered on August 17, the CBI has alleged that Mahendru has made two payments – Rs 1 crore to the UCO Bank account of Radha Industries, a company managed by Dinesh Arora, a close associate of Sisodia; and another cash payment of RS 2-4 crore to Gurugram based Arjun Pandey.

-INDIA NEWS STREAM