ED names AAP, Arvind Kejriwal in excise policy scam charge sheet

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday filed its first charge sheet naming Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as accused in the case related to the now-scrapped Delhi liquor excise policy, officials familiar with the development said.

Excise policy case: ED files charge sheet against Kejriwal, AAP

The agency has alleged that Kejriwal, as the national convenor of AAP, was the “kingpin” and key conspirator in a scheme where ₹100 crore in bribes were paid to the party by the so-called South Group, which benefited from changes made in the 2021-22 policy.

This marks the first time a national political party and a sitting chief minister have been named as an accused in a money laundering case.

In the nearly 200-page document, which is the eighth in a series of charge sheets filed by the ED since November 2022, the agency claimed that Kejriwal was directly involved in formulating the excise policy and demanded kickbacks from the South Group in exchange for awarding them favours. The ED also alleged that Kejriwal was involved in using ₹45 crore of the proceeds of crime in AAP’s Goa election campaign.

“A detailed prosecution complaint running into over 200 pages of operative part has been filed based on irrefutable evidence that shows that Kejriwal is the key conspirator who used his position as the CM of Delhi to facilitate the offence of money laundering by the ‘company’ i.e. AAP,” said an officer who requested anonymity.

The CM and the party have been charge-sheeted under section 70 of the PMLA, which deals with “offences by companies”, the officer said, asking not to be named.

The development will allow the ED to provisionally attach AAP’s immovable or movable assets, and the agency may even inform the Election Commission about the charges against the party.

The AAP accused the federal agency of “functioning like a political wing of the BJP”. “Its intention from the very beginning of this fake investigation was to frame AAP, arrest all its top leaders and crush the party. ED’s charge sheet framing AAP and CM Arvind Kejriwal is part of this grand political conspiracy.”

Now all properties and bank accounts of Arvind Kejriwal and AAP will be seized, which will further cause huge harassment and injustice, the party alleged.

Additional solicitor general SV Raju told the Supreme Court on Thursday that Kejriwal played a key role in formulating the now-scrapped excise policy and that the agency had direct evidence of the chief minister staying in a seven-star hotel, with bills partly paid by an accused in the case.

Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 and was in judicial custody until he was given interim bail on May 10 for the election campaign, and has been ordered to return to custody on June 2. The ED stated in the indictment that AAP committed money laundering through Kejriwal, who, as the party’s national convenor, is vicariously liable for its actions.

The Delhi High Court rejected his pleas challenging the arrest and remand, and the Supreme Court on Friday reserved order appealing the HC decision.

The ED has also cited statements from businessman Sarath Reddy, who claimed that Kejriwal asked him to stay in touch with AAP’s former communication in-charge, Vijay Nair, as someone who “could take care of every problem.”

In its remand note seeking Kejriwal’s custody, the agency on March 22 had contended that statements of various people involved in the election campaigns of the AAP were enough to show “the dissipation/utilisation of proceeds of crime by the representative of Manish Sisodia (former deputy CM) in Goa elections. This is also corroborated by one of the candidates of AAP of Goa elections in 2022 who received funds for election expenses in cash from the AAP volunteers in Goa”, the agency added.

The ED has linked Kejriwal to the generation and use of the kickbacks saying that at the time of the offence, the CM was “in charge of and responsible for the said ‘company, that is AAP’.”

The agency further claimed that the money laundering had taken place in the Delhi excise policy “with Kejriwal’s knowledge” and that “he didn’t exercise any timely diligence to prevent such contravention”.

The party on Friday reiterated that no recoveries of money had been made. “This is the first case in ED’s history where after over two years of investigation, after over 500 raids, after filing 8 charge sheets, there is not a single rupee of recovery from any of the AAP leaders. The entire case of ED is built on statements of accused-turned-approvers, all of who have links to the BJP. Whenever the courts questioned ED on the veracity of these statements, ED had no answers,” he said.

The money laundering case stems from an investigation initiated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into alleged irregularities in the Delhi government’s 2021-22 excise policy, which aimed to revitalise the city’s liquor business by replacing a sales volume-based regime with a license fee for traders and promising a better customer experience.

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The policy was scrapped prematurely following a probe recommended by Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, with AAP alleging that Saxena’s predecessor sabotaged the move with last-minute changes that resulted in lower-than-expected revenues.

The court has listed the charge sheet for hearing on May 18. The ED has so far arrested 18 people, including four politicians — Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, K Kavitha, and Sanjay Singh — and has named 36 people and entities as accused, besides submitting thousands of documents as evidence in the court.