Delhi Excise Policy row: Corporate Affairs Ministry launches probe against Sisodia aide Vijay Nair; businessman says will cooperate with CBI

NEW DELHI,AUG 20: As CBI investigates an alleged liquor licensing scam in Delhi, the Corporate Affairs Ministry has launched a parallel probe and a key name that has come to the fore is of Vijay Nair and a maze of companies he is associated with, including Only Much Louder, Babblefish and Motherswear.

Other names that have come up during the preliminary probe and could be indirectly associated with Nair, including through his co-directors, are Weirdass Comedy, Motormouth Writers and Rebellion Management among entities engaged in online gaming, betting and comedy shows, officials said citing Registrar of Companies records.

While the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the role of Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and at least 14 other individuals, including Nair, for alleged corruption in the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy, top government officials said that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) is looking into a maze of corporate entities associated with these 15 persons named in the FIR filed by the premier investigative agency.

A day after being raided by the CBI, Sisodia and his party, the Aam Aadmi Party, described the CBI action as politically motivated and claimed that the BJP government is scared of Arvind Kejriwal’s emergence as a “national alternative” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Nair, on the other hand, issued a statement on Saturday wherein he refuted that he has fled the country and said he was abroad for “personal” work.

The list of companies being probed by the Corporate Affairs Ministry includes several of those associated with comedy shows on various internet platforms and also with a number of stand-up comedians, top officials said.

These include companies linked to Nair and some other individuals named in the CBI’s FIR.

In its FIR, the CBI has alleged that accused liquor licensees and businessmen, including Nair, were actively involved in irregularities in the framing and implementation of the policy.

The CBI has also alleged that one Arun Ramchandra Pillai collected bribes from a liquor firm owner for the accused public servants through Nair, whom the agency described in the FIR as the former CEO of Only Much Louder, an entertainment and event management company based in Mumbai.

Officials said that the initial probe by the RoC suggested that some companies previously set up by Nair have been struck off from the registry, but details about those are being looked into.

The RoC records show that a company named ‘Only Much Louder Event Management Private Limited’ was incorporated with a paid-up capital of Rs 1 lakh in Mumbai in 2006 and it had two directors, Vijay Swaminathan Nair and Girish Makhanlal Talwar.

The other companies where Vijay Swaminathan Nair was a director included OML Digital Production Private Limited (incorporated in 2009) and Motherswear Entertainment Private Limited (incorporated in 2010).

On the other hand, Talwar was also a director of two other firms, Weirdass Comedy Private Limited (incorporated in 2016) and Rebellion Management and Entertainment Private Limited (set up in 2020).

Weirdass Comedy, which held its last AGM in October 2021, also had Anuraag Srivastava and Vir Saran Das as its directors.

At OML Digital Production Private Limited, one of the directors named Ajay Swaminathan Nair is associated with some gaming companies as well.

Vijay and Ajay Nair were also the two directors at Motherswear Entertainment, which was set up as a company engaged in businesses like race tracks, video parlours, amusement parks and other entertainment activities, officials added, citing the RoC records.

Another company being looked into is 64 Squares Gaming Private Limited, one of whose directors was found to be associated with two other companies named OML Tools and Technologies Private Limited and Motormouth Writers Private Limited and these companies were also found to share the address with some companies associated with Nair.

In the meantime, the CBI is examining the documents seized during its raids at 31 places including the residence of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia and it has summoned for questioning some of the accused in the corruption case related to the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy, according to officials.

In his statement, Nair said he was surprised to hear the news that he has “run away” abroad and said that he will “fully cooperate” as soon as he hears 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 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 the 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.

-PTI