The Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued three summonses to the Delhi chief minister based on approximately four statements about some “high-profile” meetings, details of a WhatsApp chat and FaceTime calls between Arvind Kejriwal, his close associates, and those suspected of accepting kickbacks in connection with the alleged excise policy scam, News agency has learned.
Kejriwal had already ignored two summonses and sent a letter to the organisation stating he couldn’t make the third. He claimed in a previous letter to the ED that the summons to appear before it in the excise policy issue was “illegal and politically motivated,” and he asked the agency to revoke it.
“I have lived all my life with honesty and transparency. I have nothing to hide,” the AAP national convener had said in his communication to ED.
The Delhi government’s senior cabinet ministers were complicit in enforcing the excise policy, according to ED sources, who also claim to have proof of some WhatsApp and FaceTime conversations between the accused and the chief minister or the minister’s close associates or colleagues.
According to an additional source, Kejriwal knew about all of these agreements and transactions because he was the party chief as well. In his presence, some documents were signed. The insider stated, “We need to document his statement regarding some significant evidence we have related to the investigation.
He went on to say that the chief minister has been called in three times, and that his appearance is set for January 2. Kejriwal appeared before the CBI once. However, he chose to skip all earlier summons by the ED, he added.
The excise policy scandal in Delhi has its roots in a report submitted in July 2022 to Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena by Naresh Kumar, the chief secretary of the Uttar Pradesh.
He made references to purported procedural errors in the policy’s creation in the report, which spanned five pages. Kumar claimed that Manish Sisodia, the excise minister at the time, had made “arbitrary and unilateral decisions.” He added that the government coffers suffered financial losses as a result of the new policy, and certain AAP ministers and leaders were paid “kickbacks.” In February, Sisodia was brought into custody by the CBI, which had taken over the case. The investigation into the policy’s potential for money laundering was taken over by the ED from the CBI.
In a report early this year, the ED stated that “investigation revealed that acts of corruption and conspiracy in the formulation and implementation of Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 led to the loss of at least Rs 2,873 crore to the government exchequer. Proceeds of Crime generated by the activities relating to the scheduled offence under the sections prevention of corruption act and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code”.
Two senior politicians of AAP — Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh — are already behind bars in connection with the case.