Delhi, New: Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the chairman of Delhi’s government, was taken into custody by India’s financial crime agency a few weeks before the Lok Sabha elections on suspicion of running a liquor policy scam.
According to broadcaster NDTV, Kejriwal was detained, making history as the first chief minister to be arrested while in office. His party has stated that he will stay in the role, which is a setback for the opposition before elections.
Atishi Marlena Singh, the minister of education for Delhi, stated on Thursday from outside the chief minister’s residence: “We are hearing that the Enforcement Directorate has detained Kejriwal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP orchestrated his arrest. Despite more than 1,000 raids on AAP leaders and ministers, not a single rupee has been found by the ED or the CBI since the case’s inquiry started two years ago.
“There was a conspiracy behind Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest following the announcement of the Lok Sabha election.” Kejriwal is more than simply a man—he is an idea. You are mistaken if you believe that Kejriwal’s arrest will put an end to the idea. Kejriwal is the chief minister of Delhi and always will be. We have stated from the start that, should the need arise, he will administer the country from prison. No law prevents him from doing so, the woman stated in Hindi, as reported by NDTV.
WHAT IS THE DELHI EXCISE POLICY CASE?
Regarding the excise policy, two cases have been registered: one by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and another on alleged money laundering that is being looked into by the ED.
The report, which was sent to Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena in July 2022 by Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar, alleges procedural errors in the policy’s creation, according to the Indian Express.
According to the audit, “arbitrary and unilateral decisions” made by Manish Sisodia, the deputy chief minister of Delhi at the time, in his role as the excise minister, caused “financial losses to the exchequer” that were estimated to be worth more than Rs5.80 billion.
In exchange for preferential treatment—such as discounts and license fee extensions, waivers of penalties and relief from disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic—it was alleged that “kickbacks received by the AAP Delhi government and AAP leaders” from owners and operators of alcohol businesses were used to “influence” the Assembly elections that were held in Punjab and Goa in early 2022. Later, the AAP formed Punjab’s government.
Sisodia was apprehended as a result of this report being forwarded to the CBI. Following the CBI’s indictment of Sisodia and fourteen other defendants, including AAP communications chief Vijay Nair, the ED informed a court in March that the purported proceeds of crime exceeded Rs2.92 billion, and that it was imperative to ascertain the modus operandi.
According to the ED, the “scam” involved assigning private companies the wholesale liquor business and setting a 12 percent margin in exchange for a 6 percent return.
The ED said that the policy was “formulated with deliberate loopholes” that “promoted cartel formations through the back door” in order to benefit AAP officials in its first criminal complaint filed in November 2021.
Additionally, according to the ED, AAP leaders were paid bribes of Rs100 crore (S1 billion) by a group of people known as the “South Group.”
K. Kavitha in the care of ED: The reason behind the arrest of a Telangana MLC in the Delhi excise policy case
The daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, K Kavitha, is a leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and was recently arrested on suspicion of belonging to the ‘South Group’.
Raghav Magunta, the son of Ongole MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, and P Sarath Chandra Reddy, the son of P V Ramprasad Reddy and co-founder of Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma, are among the other people suspected of being involved in the group.
This group “obtained stakes in established wholesale businesses and multiple retail zones (over and beyond what was allowed in the policy),” the ED claims, “and secured unrestricted access, undue favors.”
What charges are made against Kejriwal?
On March 18, the Indian Express reported that the Enforcement Directorate has for the first time claimed that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was a conspirator in the case following Kavitha’s arrest.
“An ED probe found that Ms. K. Kavitha and other individuals plotted to get favors in the creation and execution of the Delhi excise policy, with the top AAP leaders, Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, among others. She was involved in giving the AAP leaders Rs 100 crore in return for these favors, the ED spokesperson claimed on Monday.
The Delhi Excise Policy 2021–22 was created and carried out with corruption and conspiracy, which gave rise to an ongoing flow of illicit revenue for the AAP in the form of kickbacks from wholesalers.
The ED had previously claimed in a supplemental prosecution charge that Kejriwal personally asked Sameer Mahendru, one of the primary accused, to carry on working with co-accused Vijay Nair, whom he referred to as “his boy,” during a video conversation.
Earlier, the Delhi High Court decided that it was not inclined to provide Kejriwal temporary protection from arrest in this case.