Excise Policy: Delhi High Court grants bail to AAP volunteer, liquor businessman in ED case

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court granted bail on Monday to liquor businessman Sameer Mahendru and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) volunteer Chanpreet Singh Rayat in a money-laundering case related to the alleged Delhi excise scam.

"Bail granted," said Justice Neena Bansal Krishna while pronouncing the verdict on the applications of the two accused in the case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the Delhi excise policy for 2021-22, and undue favours extended to licence holders.

The Delhi government implemented the policy on November 17, 2021, but scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid the allegations of corruption.

The ED arrested Rayat, who allegedly "managed" cash funds for the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) campaign for the 2022 Goa Assembly polls, in connection with the money-laundering case on April 12.

Mahendru was arrested in the case by the ED on September 28, 2022.

The federal agency has alleged that Rayat "managed" cash payments for the AAP's campaign in the 2022 Goa polls and had a "relationship" with the ruling party in Delhi.

It has been alleged by the ED that the "South Group" -- comprising Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidate from the Ongole Lok Sabha seat Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, his son Raghav Magunta, businessman Sarath Chandra Reddy and others -- paid bribes amounting to Rs 100 crore to the AAP for obtaining a prime position in Delhi's liquor market as part of the now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.

Of these alleged kickbacks, the ED has claimed that an amount of Rs 45 crore was used by the AAP to fund its poll campaign in Goa.

The prosecution has accused Mahendru of being one of the major beneficiaries of the violations in the excise policy as he was not only running an alcoholic beverage manufacturing unit but also given a wholesale licence, along with some retail licences, in the name of his relatives, violating norms.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Kavitha and several others are accused in the excise policy cases.