A Delhi court on Wednesday gave five days’ custody of Vijay Nair, the AAP communications in-charge, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy case. Special CBI Judge MK Nagpal of Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court passed the order on an application filed by the CBI seeking Nair's custody for seven days.

The court noted the prosecution's submissions that after being arrested on Tuesday, the accused was not cooperative and evasive on different pretexts. “Hence, in view of the totality of facts and circumstances, application filed by CBI is allowed and accused is remanded to the custody of CBI for a period of five days i.e, till October 3,” Special Judge MK Nagpal said.“The investigation of the case is at a nascent stage and detailed custodial interrogation of the accused is felt necessary not only to unearth the entire conspiracy and the roles played by different accused people, including public servants but also to trace the trail of ill-gotten money which is alleged to have been paid to the accused public servants by way of commission,” the court said.

 The court said Nair's custodial interrogation was required to confront him with the evidence already collected by the Investigating Officer (IO). “He (Nair) will be required to be questioned with regard to the nature of data, which is stated to have been deleted from his mobile phones by way of formatting,” the court said.

According to the prosecution, Nair, entered into a criminal conspiracy with others, and in furtherance of the conspiracy, the Excise Policy of the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi of 2021-2022 was framed and implemented.

The motive was to provide undue and illegal favours to liquor manufacturers and distributors at the cost of the Government exchequer and the policy resulted in a huge revenue loss to the Government, the prosecution said.

The CBI had registered an FIR against the accused along with some public servants and Excise Department officers, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and other named and unnamed accused persons under the relevant sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act on allegations of various irregularities in the framing and implementation of the Excise Policy.

According to the FIR, the accused public servants were instrumental in recommending and taking decisions about the Excise Policy, without approval from the competent authority.