DJB scam: ED raids dozen locations linked to AAP; CM calls it ‘sheer hooliganism’

Later in the day, Kejriwal wrote on X, “Today, 23 ED officers raided my PA’s house for 16 hours. After a thorough search, they found nothing. Not a single penny was found, no jewelry or any property of any kind, no papers… It is clear that these raids and arrests are being done only out of political malice, to harass us, to crush the Aam Aadmi Party…”

According to ED officials, the probe was related to money laundering charges in a July 2022 case where the DJB allegedly gave “undue advantages” to a company for the supply, installation, testing, and commissioning of electro-magnetic flow metres in connivance with officials of the NBCC (lndia) Limited. The project was valued a little less than Rs 40 crore, they said.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva accused Kejriwal of allegedly turning the DJB “into a den of corruption” since it came to power, while Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri demanded Kejriwal’s resignation on “moral grounds” as he chaired the DJB.

Sachdeva said, “The raids have confirmed BJP’s allegations of corruption in the Delhi Jal Board… Calling ED raids or other investigations as BJP-sponsored by AAP leaders is their desperation to escape from inquiry…”

Bidhuri said, “Kejriwal was the chairman of the Board… When the AAP first came to power, the Board had a surplus fund of Rs 600 crore. Today, the Jal Board faces a loss of Rs 73,000 crore.”

The AAP, meanwhile, said that the raids were a reaction to an “exposé” on the agency by party’s senior leader and Delhi minister Atishi. During a press conference on Tuesday morning, Atishi launched a scathing attack on the ED, accusing it of resorting to intimidation tactics and corruption to silence the AAP.

ED sources, however, said that the allegations were “baseless and malicious”, and it is planning to take legal action against Atishi over her Tuesday attack.

Condemning the raids that came days after the ED filed a complaint against Kejriwal for non-appearance to its repeated summons in the Delhi liquor policy case, Atishi said that these were as “blatant attempts” by the BJP-led government at Centre and the ED to “silence dissent and intimidate the Opposition”.

“Last night, I posted on Twitter that at 10 am today (Tuesday) I shall do an exposé on the ED. To stop this exposé, people associated with the AAP have been raided by the ED, since 7 am,” Atishi said, alleging that there was a lack of substantial progress in the ED’s investigations, with three crucial factors casting doubt on the same.

“The AAP leaders have been intimidated for the last two years, using the liquor excise case. Yet in these two years, they have not been able to find a single piece of evidence… The ED has failed to recover any laundered money, even after two years of investigation. The ED has not been able to gather any substantial evidence to support the allegations, and there have been instances of coercion and threats to extract false testimonies,” she said.

She further accused the ED of tampering with evidence, saying that the “ED had deleted audio footage from CCTV recording of the interrogations”. She cited a 2020 Supreme Court order which had observed that all investigating agencies, including the ED, must carry out their interrogation under CCTV surveillance and that footage must contain both audio and video recordings.

Atishi said that one of the accused had requested access to the interrogation footage, but was not provided with the audio recording. “The accused asked for the CCTV footage, but the ED gave the footage with the audio being deleted,” alleged Atishi.

Sources in the ED, however, asserted that the CCTV system was upgraded to record and store audio as well as video only in October 2023. “The CCTV footage was recorded in video-only format as the then available CCTV system did not have the facility to record audio,” said an ED source.

“No audio recording has ever been deleted by ED officials. Audio facility was just not available in the earlier CCTV system installed by the ED. ED records hundreds of statements in quasi-judicial proceedings in a professional manner… The CCTV system at the ED office was upgraded with the latest storage facilities in October 2023, enabling audio recording of interrogations… Audio-video recording is done for interrogation of all the accused, including that of [AAP leader] Sanjay Singh,” said the ED source.

On this, AAP sources said the ED has, therefore, admitted that it did not follow the Supreme Court directions. “The ED has admitted… that in complete violation and contempt of court orders, including an order by Hon’ble SC, they did not conduct audio recordings till October 2023. Why? Doesn’t it vitiate the entire investigation in alleged liquor scam, when several accused/witnesses have gone on record that they were subjected to torture and forced to sign statements? Several accused/witnesses have claimed that their statements were different from the one presented to them for signing,” said an AAP source, requesting anonymity.