The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has named Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party as accused in the chargesheet of the money laundering case linked to the alleged excise or liquor policy 'scam'.
Overall this is the eighth charge sheet filed by the ED in this case in which it has arrested 18 people so far. Last week, a similar complaint was filed by the agency against Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and former Telangana chief minister Chandrashekar Rao's daughter K Kavitha and four others.
ED officials along with Special Public Prosecutors on Friday filed a supplementary chargesheet (prosecution complaint) in Delhi excise policy case at the Rouse Avenue Court.
The ED arrested Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on March 21 in the Delhi excise or liquor policy case. Arvind Kejriwal was subsequently sent to judicial custody and was lodged in Tihar jail.
Allegations are that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge repeatedly refuted by AAP.
Arvind Kejriwal got bail on May 10 from the Supreme Court till June 1 in connection with the excise or liquor policy case to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections 2024.
Kejriwal got bail on several conditions, including a ban on visiting the chief minister's office or the secretariat.
Kejriwal 'Kingpin And Key Conspirator': ED's Allegations
The Delhi chief minister has earlier been called the "kingpin and key conspirator" of the Delhi excise "scam" by the ED. It is alleged he acted in collusion with ministers of Delhi government, AAP leaders and other persons.
"We have direct evidence that Kejriwal stayed in a seven-star hotel, whose bills were partly paid by an accused in the case," Additional Solicitor General SV Raju told the Supreme Court on Thursday, adding that Arvind Kejriwal played a key role in the formulation of the Delhi excise policy, which has now been scrapped.
He alleged that Arvind Kejriwal, as the national convenor of the AAP, was vicariously responsible for the alleged scam.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the liquor policy. Subsequently, the ED registered a case under the PMLA.
The ED filed its money laundering case to probe alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy of 2021-22 on August 22, 2022, taking cognisance of a CBI FIR that was lodged on August 17, 2022.
(with PTI inputs)
