On a day when a Delhi Court sent Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to CBI custody till March 4 in connection with the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy case, the agency’s plea has revealed that kickbacks amounting to ₹ 90 cr was  routed to the politician’s men by a South India liquor lobby.

“It was alleged that it was done because of advance kickbacks of around ₹90 – ₹100 crores paid by the South liquor lobby to the co-accused Vijay Nair. Some specific oral as well as documentary evidence to this effect is stated to have surfaced during the investigation conducted so far to substantiate the above allegations, and also the allegations of destruction of some evidence being levelled against him,” the judge noted. In its remand order, the Judge observed that the investigation in the case so far is alleged to have revealed that Sisodia, being an Excise Minister, “had manipulated certain changes in the cabinet note, which was prepared on the draft policy and was put up along with the expert committee report and the comments taken and opinions received from the general public and stakeholders, with some ulterior motives and designs and to help some stakeholders of the excise policy in achieving the illegal objective of cartelization and monopoly in the sale of liquor in Delhi during the above year.”

“It became necessary to arrest him in the case as he was not cooperating in the investigation and did not disclose the true facts related to the above conspiracy, the role of other accused persons, including public servants, as well as the trail of the ill-gotten money received through hawala channels,” Special CBI judge Nagpal observed.

While seeking a five-day remand for Sisodia, the CBI’s public prosecutor submitted before the court that the AAP leader was heading the Group of Ministers (GoM).

“It is a case of increasing the profit margin from 5 per cent to 12 per cent and benefiting the liquor manufacturer,” the CBI alleged in court.