ED to Include AAP and Arvind Kejriwal as Accused in Liquor Case Chargesheet
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will name Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as the accused in a fresh chargesheet in the Delhi liquor policy-linked money laundering case. This is the first time that any agency has named a national party as an accused in the chargesheet filed in a corruption case. Besides naming the AAP as an accused, the ED will also attach some fresh assets in teh case that was registered in 2022.
The central agency will also name jailed Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal as the accused in the case. The ED will file the chargesheet after Supreme Court’s hearing in the case is over. If the hearing continues through the day, the chargesheet will be filed tomorrow, India Today reported.
Not only Kejriwal and AAP, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief K Kavitha and some others may also be named as accused in the chargesheet. The Enforcement Directorate arrested Kejriwal from his official residence in Delhi on March 21 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). K Kavitha, MLC and daughter of ex-Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, was taken into custody from Hyderabad on March 15.
Official sources told news agency PTI that a prosecution complaint has been filed against many entities, including Arvind Kejriwal and K Kavitha, some linked individuals and companies, has been readied and the ED may file it before a special PMLA court within the next 4-5 days.
They added that the accused will be charged with money laundering and the prosecution complaint will be filed under sections 45 and 44(1) of the PMLA. This will be the seventh chargesheet by the central agency in this case wherein 18 people have been arrested so far, including former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh.
Sanjay Singh was granted bail recently. Sources within the Aam Aadmi Party claimed that the expected complaint was nothing but BJP’s chargesheet and that the saffron party only wants to defame Arvind Kejriwal.
Sources within the ED, however, said the agency is expected to charge Kejriwal with “non-cooperation” in its investigation and being “vicariously” liable for the offence committed by the AAP, being the national convenor of the said party and because of his role and active involvement in the day-to-day affairs and the conduct of the business of AAP.
They further mentioned that the agency may reiterate its previous charge that as AAP national convenor and a member of its national executive, Arvind Kejriwal was “ultimately responsible for the funds being used in the election expenses including their generation.”
The central agency has called the jailed Delhi CM the “kingpin and key conspirator” of the Delhi excise “scam”, which was done in collusion with Delhi government ministers, AAP leaders and other persons. The ED has also alleged that Rs 45 crore “kickbacks”, out of the Rs 100 crore “bribe” provided by the ‘South Group’, were used by the AAP for the Goa assembly election campaign in 2022.
The ‘South Group’ liquor lobby allegedly includes Kavitha, TDP Ongole seat Lok Sabha candidate Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, his son Raghav Reddy and others.
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