DELHI

LIQUOR SCAM
Alcohol industry provides livelihood for 1.5% of total people employed in country.
Alcohol industry's contribution to GDP is approx. 2%.
 What is Delhi’s Liquor Policy?
Delhi was divided into 32 zones with each zone having 27 liquor vends.
It aimed to end the liquor mafia and black marketing, increase revenue and improve the consumer experience,
and ensure equitable distribution of liquor vends.
It marked the exit of the government from selling liquor — only private liquor shops would run in the city, and
each municipal ward would have 2-3 vends.
The government also made the rules flexible for licensees, such as allowing them to offer discounts and set their
own prices instead of selling on MRP fixed by the government.
So discounts were offered by vendors, which attracted crowds. After protests by the opposition, the excise
department withdrew the discounts for some time.

 After the implementation of the new excise policy 2021-22, the government’s revenue increased by 27 per

cent, generating around Rs 8,900 crore.

ED’s alegation against AAP leaders?
Delhi court on Thursday remanded Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member

of Rajya Sabha Sanjay Singh in Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody

until October 10. Separately, the Supreme Court, hearing the bail plea

of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, asked the ED

some tough questions before adjourning the matter to October 12.

Singh was arrested on Wednesday; Sisodia on February 26. Both lead-

ers are accused of corruption in the formulation and implementation

of the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22, which came into force in November

2021 but was scrapped in July 2022.

How AAP reacted to ED charges against Arvind Kejriwal

The AAP dismissed the ED allegations and said even the Supreme Court had not found credibility in the
claim.
“Even the SC has discarded ED’s claim that any money trail of ₹100 crore exists in this matter. The entire
world knows by now that the entire excise case is fake and without an iota of evidence,” the AAP said
in a statement.
“On earlier occasions too, ED has released such blatantly false and frivolous statements which show that
instead of being a neutral investigative agency, it is working like a political wing of BJP,” it added.
Delhi minister Atishi alleged that the ED is “planting stories” in the media and has not even a “penny
worth” of evidence against Kejriwal.
The AAP termed the ED probe a “desperate attempt” to malign the image of Kejriwal and former deputy
chief minister Manish Sisodia by “planting falsehoods and creating a media sensation.”
 “ED is showing its true political colour by sending summons after summons to Kejriwal and issuing
statements to the media. This whole game of ED-CBI is to stop Kejriwal from campaigning for the Lok
Sabha polls,” Atishi said.
What’s liquor policy case and allegation against K Kavitha?

The ED has questioned K Kavitha thrice last year in this case and again summoned her this year but she
did not depose citing a Supreme Court direction that allowed her protection from any coercive ac-
tion.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had claimed that K Kavitha was linked to a “South Group” lobby of li-
quor traders, who were trying to play a larger role under the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for
2021-22.
The agency alleged that one of the accused in the case, Vijay Nair, received kickbacks to the tune of at
least ₹100 crore on behalf of the AAP leaders from the “South Group”, allegedly controlled by Sarath
Reddy, Kavitha and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy.
 K Kavitha has asserted that she had done nothing wrong and alleged that the Centre was “using” the
ED as the BJP could not gain a “backdoor entry” into Telangana.
What BJP said

 BJP national spokesperson Sanju Verma said, “Arvind Kejriwal, the cor-
rupt and greedy thug who masquerades as CM is clearly mentioned in
this ED press release and how alongwith Manish Sisodia and K.Kavitha,
he was involved in a quid pro quo, is again a reflection of the rot that
pervades the Arvind Kejriwal regime in Delhi.”
 BJP spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill also hit out at Delhi’s CM Kejriwal said
that this is India where the law of the land prevails and law will break
“Anarchist Arrogant Aadmi’s” arrogance.
THANK YOU