Both Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its convener Arvind Kejriwal are connected with a money laundering case related to the Excise Policy case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi on Tuesday. ED told the court that Kejriwal is the “kingpin” and the “key conspirator” in the excise policy case.
The court is hearing arguments to consider ED’s supplementary chargesheet (prosecution complaint) filed against Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal and the AAP as accused in the case.
Advocate Zoheb Hussain, appearing for the ED, said it is a case where both 70(1) and 70(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) are to be invoked.
“Arvind Kejriwal is the kingpin and key conspirator of the Delhi excise scam which includes AAP leader and other persons. Kickbacks were demanded…(Kejriwal) was actively involved with the process of crime including using it for AAP campaign,” he said.
Further going into Delhi CM’s involvement in the case, the lawyer said, “Kejriwal had endorsed AAP’s former communications in-charge Vijay Nair and he held meetings with people on behalf of Delhi Government and sought favours in the nature of party funds…GOM was set up by him, he was part of the larger conspiracy to generate the proceeds of crime, he ensured that the GOM is a farce and there is no real meeting and discussion.”
Further, the ED told the court that stakeholders who were willing to invest but were not ready to accept these demands were chucked out.
“There were some wholesalers in Punjab who didn’t agree to pay up and were then forced to go out of the business…There was no reason for Mahadev Liquor to surrender their flourishing business,” the probe agency said.
ED on May 17 filed the seventh supplementary chargesheet in the money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy-2021-22 and Kejriwal and the AAP as accused in the case.
The party and its chief have been booked under various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The chargesheet was filed in the court of Special Judge (PC Act) Kaveri Bawja of the Rouse Avenue court. This was the first occasion when Kejriwal and a political party were named as accused in the ED’s chargesheet in the excise policy case.
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