NEW DELHI: The ED has alleged that evidence collected by it showed hawala transfers of approximately Rs 45 crore, which were used in the AAP’s Goa election campaign.
The assertions made in the seventh supplementary charge-sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi excise policy scam, which was taken on record by a special court in Delhi earlier last week, is likely to come as a huge problem for Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, who has been named as the 37th accused in the overall list of 38 accused.
The ED in its 208-page submission on 17 May, while describing Kejriwal as a key conspirator in the scam, has alleged that he was involved in formulating policies to favour certain individuals in exchange for kickbacks, and then used these illicit funds for electoral gains in Goa while evading and obstructing the subsequent investigation.
Kejriwal, his lawyers and the AAP have all termed these investigations and “findings” by Central agencies like ED as baseless and an exercise being done by these agencies on the behest of the BJP led Central government for political reasons. As per Indian jurisprudence, all accused are presumed innocent until found guilty by the court.
The ED has extensively cited Kejriwal’s alleged links with Vijay Nair (accused number 6), who is alleged to be a close associate of the Delhi CM and who acted as a broker for getting bribes from various stakeholders in the Delhi liquor business in exchange for favourable outcomes in the Excise Policy of 2021-22.
The ED has stated that Nair lived in a government bungalow close to Kejriwal’s and operated from Kejriwal’s camp office. Kejriwal, as per the ED, has denied allegations of Nair directly reporting to him, despite evidence suggesting otherwise. The ED has claimed that Kejriwal evaded questions about his involvement and did not reveal passwords to his digital devices, inhibiting evidence collection and giving evasive replies during custodial interrogation.
According to the ED’s allegations, Kejriwal gave false and contrary evidence vis-à-vis other members of the AAP, which were contrary to the facts and records available. When he was confronted with the statements given by his own party leaders he called them “confused”, the ED has claimed.
As per ED, the national treasurer of AAP, N.D. Gupta (Rajya Sabha MP, a practicing CA and former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) in his statements revealed that it was the national convenor (Arvind Kejriwal) who appointed the state election incharge/prabhari. The state prabhari is supposed to manage all election campaign related matters. In the case of Goa elections, AAP leader Durgesh Pathak was chosen.
However, Kejriwal told the ED that it was the PAC (Political Affairs Committee) which decided the state election incharge. Kejriwal, as per ED, first claimed that N.D. Gupta was an active member of the party and a member of PAC (Political Affairs Committee) and had knowledge of the party functioning. When confronted with the statement of Gupta that the national convenor made such decisions, Kejriwal called the national treasurer “confused”.
The ED has further alleged that evidence collected by it showed hawala transfers of approximately Rs 45 crore, which were used in the AAP’s Goa election campaign. While responding to questions related to this, Kejriwal claimed ignorance even as the national treasurer of AAP stated that Kejriwal was ultimately responsible for the funds used in election expenses, including those in Goa.
The ED has further claimed that C. Arvind, earlier secretary to former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, in June 2022, got a call from Alka Diwan, retired IAS officer, whose husband and family have a liquor business in the name of Diwan Spirits; who told him that, Dinesh Arora (accused no. 11, middleman, associate of Vijay Nair—alleged close associate of Manish Sisodia, involved in transfer of kickback funds—who has now turned approver) was till now taking money from them but now he was putting pressure on them to give him or his nominee 50% partnership in the firm Diwan Spirits by taking the name of Sisodia. Diwan further told C. Arvind that Dinesh Arora and Vijay Nair would not have been able to exert such pressure on the trade without having the support of the top leaders of AAP.
It is pertinent to mention that Diwan Spirits was among the companies that were awarded an L1 licence during the Excise Policy 2021- 22.
The ED, to bring out the alleged role of Kejriwal in the scam, has relied on statements and testimonies from individuals involved, who provided detailed accounts of their role in the transactions and the handling of fund, seizure of digital devices and physical documents during searches that contained incriminating evidence, such as chats and transaction records, corroborative evidence like call records and location mapping, which the ED claims support the statements made by the accused.
The ED has attached detailed accounts of Hawala transactions including the involvement of specific individuals and the amounts transferred which have been supported by statements from Hawala operators who confirmed these transactions.
According to ED, even though multiple digital devices were seized during search operations under Sections 17 and 18 of the PMLA, still there was a large-scale destruction of digital evidence, particularly high-end smartphones used during the liquor scam. Many of these phones were either not recovered or found to be formatted, with incriminating documents and chats deleted. Some phones that were recovered contained valuable evidence such as pictures of currency notes and communication regarding part cash and part billing arrangements related to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
One of the messages that was allegedly shared between Kejriwal and one of the middlemen, Vinod Chauhan shows the middleman requesting the Delhi CM to meet a sitting high court judge of an eastern state to which Kejriwal agreed. The said judge is now heading a regulatory body in a northern state after retiring. Chauhan was also able to arrange the postings of his close associates in Delhi Jal Board through Kejriwal, messages extracted allegedly from the accused phones have revealed.
According to the ED’s claims, Kejriwal refused to disclose passwords for two iPhones containing critical digital information/documents, stating they contained election-related information.