ED gets Kejriwal custody till March 28, tells court: He is kingpin, key conspirator in Delhi excise scam

The agency, which produced Kejriwal before Special Judge Kaveri Baweja at the Rouse Avenue Court in the afternoon, sought his remand for 10 days. Later in the evening, the judge granted his custody until March 28.

Maintaining that the excise policy was made by the AAP to fund the Goa elections, the ED told the court that statements of various individuals engaged in campaign-related activities for the polls in Goa revealed that cash payments were made to them for working as survey workers, area managers, assembly managers etc.

“These persons have revealed that these payments were given to them in cash… These persons and activities related to the election campaign were overall managed by Sh Vijay Nair and Sh Durgesh Pathak, AAP MLA in Delhi,” the ED said.

Appearing for Kejriwal, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi asked what was the need to arrest the CM when “static and frozen” facts were with the agency for months.

“Over 80% + of the people have not even mentioned Kejriwal or any dealings with him,” said Singhvi, referring to the witnesses cited by the ED.

Appearing for ED, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju said, “The CM demanded kickbacks from ‘South Group’ and in exchange gave favours to them… Proceeds of crime of about Rs 45 crores received from the South group were used by AAP in Goa election campaigning in 2021-22.”

“AAP is a beneficiary which exists as a company. Every person responsible for the conduct of the company is responsible… apart from being liable as an individual, the CM is also vicariously liable (as the national convenor of the party),” Raju said.

The agency told the court that phones were formatted by various accused to destroy the evidence.

Singhvi, however, said Kejriwal shouldn’t have been arrested without “material”.

“You can’t come to my house and arrest me without material… The power of both bail and arrest is difficult under the PMLA. You can’t let a person off easily because you can’t even arrest the person easily,” he said.

The case, he said, was stitched together by the words of the Lt Governor of Delhi, some co-accused persons and approvers and no incriminating material had been found against Kejriwal even after more than one year had elapsed.

“There is a pattern. First, many witnesses will give statements in which Kejriwal won’t be mentioned. Then, these witnesses will be arrested and denied bail. Then, the ED will make a deal with them and make them an approver. The next day a statement against Kejriwal will come which will be against the CM,” Singhvi said.

“It is the first time the sitting CM has been arrested in the 75 year history of our country… You have a verdict before the first vote is cast,” he said, adding that free and fair elections and a level-playing field are part of the Basic Structure of the Constitution.

He said that earlier two approvers did not name the CM but were later made approvers and granted bail.

“Their case is based on just a few approvers… first, there is nothing. Then the accused becomes an approver… My lord, we are like Alice in Wonderland,” he said.

Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari, also appearing for Kejriwal, said, “Were you waiting for the elections to start? Why didn’t you arrest the CM earlier? You wanted to prevent me from campaigning for elections.”

“All material against the alleged ‘kingpin’ was already with them. They had all the information beforehand. No new fact has come to light,” Chaudhari said.

“The first line of the remand paper of the ED says Kejriwal is kingpin as the CM… But in January, they said the CM was not being called as the CM,” he said.

Senior Advocate Ramesh Gupta, the third counsel appearing for the CM, said, “There cannot be more than one approver in a case… approver’s statements can’t be corroborated with each other.”

The excise policy case arose out of a report submitted by Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena in July 2022, pointing to alleged procedural lapses in the formulation of the policy. The policy was later scrapped.

The report said “arbitrary and unilateral decisions” taken by then Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, in his capacity as Excise Minister, had resulted in “financial losses to the exchequer” estimated at more than Rs 580 crore.

Recently, K Kavitha, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, was arrested allegedly for being part of the ‘South Group’. Others alleged to be part of the group include Ongole MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy’s son Raghav Magunta, P Sarath Chandra Reddy, son of P V Ramprasad Reddy and co-founder of Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma.

According to the ED, this group “secured uninhibited access, undue favours, attained stakes in established wholesale businesses and multiple retail zones (over and above what was allowed in the policy)”.

It was after Kavitha’s arrest that the Enforcement Directorate alleged, for the first time, that Kejriwal was a conspirator in the case.