New Delhi: The liquor scam of Delhi is not only burdening the state's Arvind Kejriwal government but also the state exchequer there. According to a recently surfaced report, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of Delhi has paid more than Rs 25 crore to the lawyers involved in the liquor scam. According to the report, in the last 18 months, the Kejriwal government has spent Rs 28.10 crore on lawyers' fees.

Media reports have quoted sources as saying that Rs 18.97 crore has been given to Congress leader and lawyer by profession Abhishek Manu Singhvi by the Kejriwal government for lobbying the liquor scam. At the same time, Rs 5.30 crore has been given to advocate Rahul Mehra, who represented Jail Minister Satyendar Jain, who is in jail for the last 7 months in a corruption case. It has been told in the report that during the year 2021-22, Rs 14.85 crore was first given to Singhvi, and later Rs 4.1 crore was given. At the same time, Mehra's payment, which was shown as Rs 2.4 lakh in the expenditure list of the statement in 2020-21, increased to Rs 3.9 crore in 2021-22 and is currently recorded at Rs 1.3 crore.

Sources have also been quoted as saying that before the liquor scam came to light, the total expenditure of the AAP government in Delhi was just Rs 6.70 crore. In this, most of the expenditure was incurred for the General Administration Department (GAD) and the Health Department. 

What is Delhi's liquor scam:-

According to the Chief Secretary's report, factionalism and monopoly were going on in the liquor business under the new excise policy brought by the Kejriwal government. It has also been alleged that liquor licenses were also illegally distributed to companies violating conditions under the new liquor policy. According to reports, Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia had made changes in the excise policy without the mandatory approval of Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena. 

Manish Sisodia had given a concession of Rs 144.36 crore on the license fee to be paid by the liquor vendors for the license. This exemption was provided by the liquor vendors in the name of Corona epidemic. Not only this, but Sisodia also abolished the import pass fee of Rs 50 per case on beer. Along with this, revisions in the prices of foreign liquor had given an undue advantage to the liquor sellers. As per the FIR registered by the CBI, the L-1 licenses were issued illegally. For this bribe was taken. It is also learned that a businessman had given Rs 1 crore to a company run by an aide of Deputy CM Sisodia. It was also revealed in the investigation that crores of rupees were being taken from traders for L-1 licenses. Let us tell you that CM Kejriwal was continuously denying the allegation of scam under the liquor policy. But as soon as an inquiry was ordered in this regard, the Delhi government immediately withdrew its liquor policy and implemented the old policy. In such a situation, the suspicion on the Delhi government deepened that, if there was no scam, then why was the policy withdrawn?

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