The Enforcement Directorate on Monday moved Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court seeking judicial custody extension of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case related to the now scrapped Delhi liquor excise policy.
The agency apprised the court that Kejriwal is currently on interim bail and is directed to surrender on June 2. The court keeps the application pending likely to be taken up on June 2.
Kejriwal, who was arrested on March 21 by the ED in connection with the agency’s money laundering probe into the now scrapped Delhi excise policy, was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court on May 10. However, the top court ordered that Kejriwal shall not visit the Office of the Chief Minister and the Delhi Secretariat.
He will have to surrender and go back to jail on June 2, a day after the last phase of polling in the general elections.
On Friday, the ED in its latest chargesheet, named Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party as accused in the excise policy probe. An official told HT that a detailed chargesheet has been filed based on ‘irrefutable evidence’ showing that
“Kejriwal is the key conspirator who used his position as the CM of Delhi to facilitate the offence of money laundering punishable u/s 4 of PMLA (prevention of money laundering act) by the ‘company’ i.e. AAP”.
The ED had earlier claimed that AAP, being a political party, is defined as an association or a body of individual citizens of India under the Representation of the People Act, and hence it can be categorised as a “company” as contemplated under section 70 of the PMLA
The court also extended the judicial custody of BRS Leader K. Kavitha in the parallel case registered by CBI till June 3.
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.
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Source: HT
