New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi launched a sharp attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday over the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the Delhi Excise Policy, accusing former Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal of corruption. Delhi BJP president Virendraa Sachdeva referred to Kejriwal as a ‘sharab ka dalal’ (broker of alcohol) and alleged that the CAG report exposed AAP’s ‘black deeds.’
Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Sachdeva said, “Today the CAG report was tabled by Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. The CAG report is a list of the black deeds of AAP. Throughout the election campaign, we said that ‘Delhi mai koi sharab ka dalal hai vo Kejriwal hai’. We had promised the people of Delhi during the elections that whoever has committed corruption will have to answer.”
BJP leader Manoj Tiwari also targeted Kejriwal, alleging that he used his position to suppress the CAG report and prevent its presentation in the Delhi Assembly. “Today the CAG report has been presented in the Vidhan Sabha. Arvind Kejriwal and his entire team, who have been given the mandate by the people of Delhi, have only used that power to prevent the CAG report from coming to the Vidhan Sabha… Arvind Kejriwal, who was involved in the scandal, has caused a scam of over Rs 2,000 crore,” Tiwari said.
The CAG report, titled ‘Performance Audit on Regulation and Supply of Liquor in Delhi’, was tabled earlier in the day by the BJP government led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. The audit, covering the period from 2017-18 to 2020-21, scrutinizes the regulation and supply of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and foreign liquor in the national capital.
Findings from the report indicate that the Delhi government suffered cumulative losses exceeding Rs 2,000 crore due to the 2021-22 excise policy. The total financial implication of the audit findings is estimated at Rs 2,026.91 crore. The report also highlighted multiple regulatory failures by the Excise Department.
According to the audit, the Excise Department failed to enforce Rule 35 of the Delhi Excise Rules, 2010, which prohibits the issuance of multiple liquor licenses to related parties. This resulted in common directorship among entities holding various types of licenses, raising concerns over conflict of interest and policy violations.
Furthermore, the department issued liquor licenses without verifying critical requirements, including solvency, submission of audited financial statements, wholesale price declarations, and verification of criminal antecedents from the competent authority. The report also pointed out the department’s failure to monitor and regulate the liquor supply effectively.
The CAG report is one of 14 pending audit reports assessing the performance of the previous AAP-led Delhi government. Its findings are expected to fuel further political confrontations between the BJP and AAP in the coming days.
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