'AAP Named As Accused' In Delhi Liquor Policy Case, ED Files Chargesheet Against Arvind Kejriwal & His Party

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), for the first time in the country’s jurisprudence, named a political party as an accused in a case on Friday.

The probe agency filed a charge sheet against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam, and named his Aam Aadmi Party as accused.

The prosecution complaint has been filed before a special court in Delhi and the accused have been sought to be charged under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), sources said.

The federal agency had arrested 55-year-old Kejriwal, also the national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party, from his official residence here on March 21. He is currently out of jail on interim bail.

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 BRS leader and former Telangana chief minister Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha and four others. The CM 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 S V Raju told the Supreme Court on Thursday, adding that Kejriwal played a key role in the formulation of the Delhi excise policy, which has now been scrapped. He alleged that Kejriwal, as the national convenor of the AAP, was vicariously responsible for the alleged scam.

The excise case pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22, which was later scrapped. 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.

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