Entrepreneur Vijay Nair may have joined Aam Aadmi Party in 2010, or 2014, or by some accounts, even 2018. But at this point, in October 2022, it’s clear that the former founder of entertainment and events management firm, Only Much Louder (OML), is very much a part of the Arvind Kejriwal-headed party, even if he doesn’t hold an “official” position. Nair was arrested last week by the CBI in connection with Delhi’s now-scrapped liquor policy, for his alleged role in “cartelisation” and “conspiracy” related to alleged irregularities in the allocation of liquor licence.

For Mumbai’s fine folks, Nair came into the limelight, when in the early 2000s, he started managing the band Pentagram, whose lead singer, music composer Vishal Dadlani, is also associated with the AAP. He dropped out of Sydenham College, where he was studying commerce when he was 18. In 2001, he founded OML with Girish (Bobby) Talwar, known for the city band Zero, and Arjun S Ravi. OML was known for organising live music festivals, especially starting NH7 in 2010 that changed the indie music scene, and managing comedy collectives like All-India Bakchod (AIB). He was a young entrepreneur, who was inspiring many like him. As one ex-employee of OML says, “He was 32 or 33 when I met him in 2017, and he was pulling in crores every month. He was good at mobilising people, and could make things happen. He was a problem-solver and a strategist. If you didn’t have those qualities, you couldn’t do what he was doing.”