Vijay Nair has no links with excise case; was arrested for refusing to name Sisodia: AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) launched a scathing attack on the BJP following the arrest of Vijay Nair, an aide of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and communications chief of the party. Nair was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-2022, which was recently withdrawn by the Arvind Kejriwal government. He is one of 15 persons, including Sisodia, named in the CBI's FIR.

Nair, a businessman by profession, was called for questioning at the CBI office on Tuesday, after which he was arrested for an alleged role in "cartelisation" and "conspiracy" in the allocating liquor licenses.

In a statement following the arrest, the AAP said that Nair "has nothing to do with excise policy" and that the case is "baseless". 

"Vijay Nair is the communication in charge of AAP. He was responsible for developing and implementing communication strategies in Punjab earlier and Gujarat now. His arrest is part of BJP's ongoing attempt to crush AAP and obstruct AAP's Gujarat campaign," the party statement read.

It further claimed that "Nair was called for questioning a few days ago and was pressurised to falsely implicate Manish Sisodia. When Nair refused to do that, he was threatened with arrest. His house was raided twice last month but nothing was found."

Vijay Nair's links with AAP

According to the FIR filed by CBI, Nair is the only person not linked to politics, non-bureaucrat and non-liquor business owner in the list of the accused. He was the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a Mumbai-based entertainment and event management company 'Only Much Louder' (OML).

It is learned that he worked as a ‘part-time volunteer’ of the AAP in the run-up to the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls and helped the Kejriwal-led party organise events and manage social media handles.

The FIR claims that Nair was “actively involved in irregularities in framing and implementation of the excise policy of GNCTD of Delhi for the year 2021-22."