Days after the Enforcement Directorate claimed that bribes received by the Aam Aadmi Party from the 'South Group' were funnelled into the party’s Goa assembly poll campaign in 2021-22 through a web of hawala transactions, the investigative agency on Wednesday summoned the AAP Goa chief to join the investigation into the Delhi excise policy case. AAP Goa president Amit Palekar confirmed to The Indian Express that he has been summoned by the ED at the agency's office in Panjim on Thursday morning for questioning in a Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) case, but declined to comment further. Sources said the ED has also summoned three more people from Goa – another AAP leader, a former BJP leader, and a leader from the Bhandari community – asking them to appear on Thursday for questioning. The AAP leader who has been summoned had contested the state assembly elections in Goa in 2022 from a constituency in North Goa. Last week, in response to the ED's claims, Palekar, who was the party's chief ministerial candidate, had told The Indian Express that there was no evidence to show that any illicit money was sent to Goa for the party's poll campaign. "None of the candidates received any money for elections… Whatever we spent was from our own pockets and accounted for. In fact, the BJP spent a huge amount of money during polls. Our only drawback was that we did not have money… yet we were able to win in two constituencies. If we had spent money like the BJP, we would have won the election," Palekar had said. In its remand application filed in Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court last week, the ED had claimed that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was “intrinsically involved in the acts of (excise) policy formulation, kickback scheme and the final use of the proceeds of crime”. According to the ED, over Rs 45 crore reached Goa via a network of hawala transactions run by informal cash couriers – known colloquially as angadiyas – with alleged links to AAP functionaries, members of the South Group, and Chariot Productions Media Pvt Ltd, a firm engaged by AAP for its election campaign in Goa. The ED also claimed that vendors as well as survey workers, area managers and assembly managers involved in the party’s poll campaign were paid in cash.
