The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it had evidence to prove that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s stay at a luxury hotel during the 2022 Goa Assembly elections was partly funded by another person accused in the liquor policy case, Live Law reported.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was hearing Kejriwal’s petition seeking interim bail in the case.
The Aam Aadmi Party chief was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 for his alleged role in the liquor policy case. He is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
On Tuesday, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the central agency, alleged that Kejriwal’s stay at a hotel during the 2022 Assembly elections in Goa was partially paid for by Chanpreet Singh, who was arrested in the case on April 12.
The Enforcement Directorate alleged that Singh managed funds for the Aam Aadmi Party’s election campaign in Goa.
“We have found that Arvind Kejriwal stayed in a 7-star grand hotel called Grand Hyatt in Goa during the Goa elections,” Raju told the court on Tuesday. “And at that time, part of his bills were paid by the general administrative department of Delhi government, but part of it was paid by Chanpreet Singh.”
The additional solicitor general claimed that the Enforcement Directorate was not concerned with politics. “It is not as if it is a politically motivated case,” Raju remarked. “We are concerned with evidence. And we have evidence.”
The bench told Raju that the chief minister had the right to criticise his arrest ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. It also questioned the delay in Kejriwal’s arrest despite the central agency allegedly having evidence of his involvement in the case.
In reply, Raju told the court that if the central agency did not have enough material and started questioning Kejriwal, then it would have been obvious that the case was malafide.
“It takes time to understand,” he said, according to Live Law. “We wanted to know [the] illegal gains of the [liquor] policy, what type of conspiracy is there.”
Raju added: “How an investigation is to be done is prerogative of the investigating officer.”
The court deferred its order on granting interim bail to Kejriwal during the hearing. It said that it could consider granting him bail on account of the elections, but on the condition that he should not carry out official duties as the chief minister.
Liquor policy case
The Enforcement Directorate is investigating allegations of money laundering in the liquor policy case based on a first information report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The two central agencies have alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party government modified Delhi’s now-scrapped liquor excise policy by increasing the commission for wholesalers from 5% to 12%. This allegedly facilitated the receipt of bribes from wholesalers who had a substantial market share and turnover.
The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that Kejriwal was the “kingpin” and the “key conspirator” in the case and the material evidence showed he was guilty of money laundering.
It has also claimed that members of a “South Group” had paid at least Rs 100 crore in kickbacks to leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party through businessman Vijay Nair, who is currently in jail. Bribes received from the South Group were also used for the Aam Aadmi Party’s election campaign in Goa.
The Enforcement Directorate claimed that funds were sent to Goa through hawala transactions carried out by informal cash couriers who were allegedly linked to the Aam Aadmi Party, the South Group and Chariot Productions Media Private Limited, a company hired by the party for the election campaign.
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