Supreme Court adjourns hearing on Vijay Nair’s bail plea in Excise Policy case

New Delhi [India], August 27 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned hearing on businessman Vijay Nair’s bail plea in a money laundering case related to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Excise Policy case.

A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti adjourned the hearing till next week on the request of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which sought one week more time to file a response.

During the hearing, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, for Nair, said that his client has been in jail for the last 21 months.

Vijay Nair has challenged the Delhi High Court order which denied bail to him in the liquor policy case. His bail plea was earlier rejected by the trial court.

Nair was arrested by CBI initially in September 2022 and later by ED in the matter. He has sought bail on the ground of parity that co-accused Manish Sisodia has been granted bail and trial has not been commenced in the matter. Nair’s counsel also submitted that his client should not continue in incarceration and deserves to be released on bail.

Earlier in his bail plea before the trial court, Nair stated that he was only the media and communications in charge of the AAP and was not involved in the drafting, framing, or implementation of the excise policy in any manner and that he was being “victimised” for his political affiliation. Nair had stated that the allegations against him were wrong, false, and baseless.

He asserted that his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate on November 13, 2022, was completely illegal and “appears to be motivated by extraneous considerations” given that the special court was expected to pronounce orders on his bail plea in the corruption case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The ED earlier told the court that Vijay Nair, on behalf of leaders of the AAP, had allegedly received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore from a group called South Group.

Nair is the former Media and Communication In-charge of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the former CEO of the entertainment and event management firm Only Much Louder.

The ED and the CBI had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority’s approval.

The L-1 licence is granted to a business entity having wholesale distribution experience in the liquor trade in any state for at least five years.