Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) used the money from the Delhi liquor scam for its campaign in the Goa Assembly polls, the Enforcement Directorate has alleged in a new chargesheet in the case.
The probe agency also alleged that AAP’s communications in-charge Vijay Nair, an accused in the Delhi liquor scam, had arranged a FaceTime video call from his phone between Sameer Mahendru, chief of Indospirits and Kejriwal, NDTV reported.
The ED had earlier filed a chargesheet against businessman Sameer Mahendru and four firms in the liquor scam case last year.
The AAP contested the 2022 Goa Assembly polls and won two seats.
A Delhi court on Thursday took cognisance of a supplementary charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against five individuals and seven companies in connection with the alleged Delhi excise scam.
Special Judge M K Nagpal issued production warrants against the accused persons — Vijay Nair, P Sarath Chandra Reddy, Benoy Babu, Abhishek Boinpally and Amit Arora — for February 23, noting that they are currently in judicial custody.
He noted that the ED case was based on a CBI FIR, and Deputy Chief Minister and Excise Minister Manish Sisodia, and 14 other persons/entities were specifically named as accused in that FIR, which included some other public servants of the Excise Department of GNCTD.
Last month, a Delhi court had fixed February 2 to decide whether to take cognisance of a supplementary chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate against five individuals and seven companies in relation to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.
The ED had filed the chargesheet in a money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy scam also involving Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. The probe agency, however, did not name Sisodia as an accused in the case and told the judge that further investigation is going on in the matter.
This is the second prosecution complaint (charge sheet) filed by the federal investigative agency in this case, registered under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The first FIR was filed in November last year.
A total of 12 people, including those arrested by ED in the case till now, have been named in the latest charge sheet, news agency PTI had reported citing sources. The money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR that had also named Sisodia as an accused among others. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had raided the premises of the deputy chief minister and some Delhi government bureaucrats after filing the case.
The AAP government’s Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 which offered big discounts for consumers was scrapped on July 31. The policy came under the radar after allegations of corruption and irregularities in the drafting and implementation of the policy surfaced.
Later, LG Vinai Kumar Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the implementation of Delhi’s Excise Policy 2021-22.
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