Abroad for personal work, will cooperate with CBI: Vijay Nair, accused in Delhi Excise Policy case

Entrepreneur Vijay Nair, one of the accused in a case registered by the CBI in connection with alleged irregularities in implementation of Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22, on Saturday refuted that he has fled the country and said he was abroad for ''personal'' work.

Nair said in a statement that he was surprised by the news that he has ''run away'' abroad and added ''I will fully cooperate as soon as I hear from the CBI.'' ''I am abroad for the last few weeks for some personal work. I have not done anything wrong. So there is no question of my running away,'' he said.

Nair also said his house in Mumbai was raided by the CBI on Friday.

''I spoke to CBI officer present at my residence on phone. I asked her whether I needed to come. She told me that some CBI officer named Mr Alok will get in touch with me and inform me when and where to report,'' he said.

Nair claimed that he did not receive any call from ''Mr Alok'' referred by the CBI officer, asserting it was wrong to say that he was ''absconding'' West Delhi BJP MP Parvesh Verma at a press conference had claimed that two associates of Sisodia, including Nair, had left the country, after the CBI had initiated its probe in the Excise policy ''scam''.

The CBI conducted raids at multiple locations in the country, including the residence of Sisodia, on Friday.

Under CBI probe are at least two payments in crores of rupees allegedly made to ''close associates'' of Sisodia by Sameer Mahendru, owner of Indospirits, who was one of the liquor traders actively involved in irregularities in the framing and implementation of the Excise policy.

The FIR alleged Sisodia's ''close associates'' Amit Arora, director of Buddy Retail Pvt. Limited in Gurugram, Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey were ''actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees'' for the accused public servants.

Radha Industries managed by Dinesh Arora allegedly received Rs 1 crore from Mahendru. Pandey, also an associate of Sisodia, had once collected a cash of about Rs 2-4 crore from Mahendru on behalf of Vijay Nair, former CEO of Only Much Louder, an entertainment and event management company, the FIR has alleged.

The CBI has invoked Indian Penal Code (IPC) section related to criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act in its FIR filed against 15 people including four public servants Sisodia, Krishna, former deputy excise commissioner Anand Tiwari and assistant excise commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar, nine businessmen and two companies.