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The Rouse Avenue Court granted bail to Vinod Chauhan on Thursday, who was arrested in connection with the Excise Policy case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Chauhan was taken into custody in May 2024.
Special Judge Kaveri Baweja passed the order and granted him bail in the case. ED in its recent supplementary prosecution complaint (chargesheet) had accused Chauhan of transferring bribes allegedly received by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) via hawala, in connection with the Delhi excise policy-linked money-laundering case. ED stated that Chauhan is a person who allegedly has a role in money sent for AAP's Goa election through Chanpreet Singh and was also allegedly in touch with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Chauhan was arrested by the ED in May and has been in judicial custody. Recently, several others accused arrested accused in the case got bail by the Delhi High Court as well as Supreme Court of India. Chauhan was arrested by ED for allegedly transferring cash bribe amount from South Group to the election campaign of Aam Aadmi Party during Goa Assembly Elections. According to ED, Vinod Chauhan was arrested from Goa's ED Zonal Office. He was involved in the transfer of amount of Rs 25.5 crores out of Rs 45 crores which was used in AAP Goa elections. ED lawyer earlier submitted that Chauhan was aware of the fact that the money was related to the Delhi liquor excise policy scam and was in deep nexus with the key conspirators. ED further alleged that he was primarily involved in Hawala transfers and cash movements and also acted as middleman for bureaucrats and politicians It was also stated that searches were conducted at various locations and Rs1.06 crores was seized from his residence. The agency claimed that he knew the amount of Rs1.06 crores was from the South Group and was holding it for AAP leaders. In the Excise case, 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 beneficiaries diverted "illegal" gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection, the probe agencies said. As per the allegations, the excise department had decided to refund the earnest money deposit of about Rs 30 crore to a successful tenderer against the set rules. The probe agency said there was an alleged loss of Rs 144.36 crore to the exchequer. Even though there was no enabling provision, a waiver on tendered licence fees was allowed from December 28, 2021, to January 27, 2022, due to COVID-19. (ANI)
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