In a significant judicial decision, the Supreme Court of India has granted bail to Vijay Nair, the former communication in-charge of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in a money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. The ruling, delivered on Monday by a bench consisting of Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice SVN Bhatti, underscored the principle that “liberty is sacrosanct.”
Vijay Nair has spent the last 22 months incarcerated, facing charges in a case where the maximum potential sentence is seven years. His arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on November 13, 2022, followed a directive from the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, V.K. Saxena, who recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the purported irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-defunct Delhi Excise Policy for the year 2021-22.
The Supreme Court’s decision comes after a series of judicial rejections for Nair, including a refusal by the Delhi High Court on July 3 last year to grant bail. Furthermore, a trial court had dismissed his default bail plea on July 29, a decision which Nair had challenged. On August 12, the Supreme Court had requested a response from the ED regarding Nair’s bail plea, leading to this latest development.
