Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Pillai arrested in Delhi liquor scam

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) made a fresh arrest in the Delhi liquor scam. It has taken Hyderabad-based liquor trader Arun Ramchandra Pillai into custody.

Pillai represented the 'South Group', a group of leaders from South India who had sent Rs 100 crore as kickbacks to Vijay Nair, the communications in-charge of Delhi ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), for facilitating liquor business when a new excise policy was brought in by the Arvind Kejriwal-led government there.

According to ED officials, Pillai is a frontman of the south-based liquor manufacturer group Indospirits who was given a 32.5 percent share of the company. He is a partner in a company Robin Distilleries LLP, who represented the South Group in the liquor cartel linked to Telangana CM K. Chandrashekhar Rao's MLC daughter K. Kavitha and others. He is also linked to arrested liquor businessman Sameer Mahandru, his wife Geetika and their company Indospirit Group.

Prior to his arrest, Pillai was questioned by ED sleuths for several hours. He was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He will be produced before a local court where the ED will seek his further custody for interrogation, the ED officials said.

ED to grill Sisodia

Meanwhile, the ED will also interrogate arrested former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia as part of its probe into the money laundering charges in relation to the irregularities in the Delhi excise policy, they added.

The CBI had arrested Sisodia on February 26 in connection with corruption in formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22. He is lodged in Tihar Jail and put under judicial custody till March 20. The ED obtained the court's permission to question the 51-year-old AAP leader, who is lodged in cell number 1 of the jail.

The investigative agency is expected to question him about the change and destruction of cellphones that were in his possession and the policy decisions and the timeline followed by him as the Excise Minister of Delhi. These charges were made by the agency in its supplementary complaints filed before the court.

The ED may invoke Section 19 of the PMLA, that allows it to arrest people involved or accused in the case, if the investigation officer has "reasons to believe" that the person is "guilty" of the offence of money-laundering.

The ED has informed the court through its chargesheet that its probe found that at least 36 accused, including Sisodia, "destroyed, used or changed" 170 phones to conceal evidence of "kickbacks" worth thousands of crores of rupees in the alleged scam.

It had also named Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the second chargesheet filed in the case early this year, claiming that C. Arvind, a DANICS officer who was earlier secretary to Sisodia, recorded his statement under the PMLA saying he was given the GoM report on the excise policy in the middle of March 2021 when he was called by his boss (Sisodia) to the residence of Kejriwal.