New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in a second money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), and has been asked to depose before the Central agency at its office here on March 18 to record his statement under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Aam Aadmi Party termed it as a backup plan to arrest him anyhow and stop him from campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls.
This latest development marks the second instance where he has been summoned under the anti-money laundering law.
The agency has also issued the ninth summons against him in an ongoing probe into the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case as he has previously disregarded eight summons in this matter, terming those “illegitimate”, and has been directed to appear for questioning on March 21 in the excise policy scam.
In the DJB case, the ED claimed funds obtained through corruption in a contract awarded by the Delhi government’s department were allegedly channelled as election funds to the AAP, the ruling party in Delhi.
The Central agency alleged that the DJB contract was inflated to facilitate the collection of bribes from contractors, further asserting that a significant portion of the contract value was diverted through fake expenses for illicit activities.
“As against the contract value of Rs 38 crores, only about Rs 17 crores was spent towards the contract and the remaining amounts were siphoned off in the guise of various fake expenses… Such fake expenses were booked for bribes and election funds,” the ED claimed.
In February, the Central financial probe agency raised the residences of Mr Kejriwal’s personal assistant Bibhav Kumar, AAP Rajya Sabha MP N.D. Gupta, former DJB member Shalabh Kumar, chartered accountant Pankaj Mangal, and others as part of this probe.
The ED’s case stemmed from a CBI FIR alleging irregularities in a DJB contract awarded to a company -- NKG Infrastructure Ltd -- for a sum of Rs 38 crores, even though the company “did not meet” the technical eligibility criteria.
Among those arrested in this case were former DJB chief engineer Jagdish Kumar Arora and contractor Anil Kumar Aggarwal on January 31. The ED claimed that NKG Infrastructure Ltd obtained the bid by submitting “forged” documents and Mr Arora “was aware of the fact that the company does not meet the technical eligibility”.
In the Delhi excise policy scam case, a Delhi court on Saturday granted bail to the AAP supremo on two complaints filed by the agency against him for skipping six of the previous eight summons in this case.
The ED had moved the magisterial court seeking his prosecution for not attending the summonses issued to him in the case.
The agency has also arrested BRS leader K. Kavitha in Hyderabad in this case on Friday and brought her to New Delhi for further questioning. A local court on Saturday had remanded her to ED custody till March 23.
The ED had claimed in its chargesheet that the AAP used the “proceeds of crime” to the tune of about Rs 45 crores in its Goa Assembly poll campaign. It is alleged that the Delhi government’s excise policy to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge repeatedly refuted by the AAP.
Meanwhile, Delhi minister Atishi, at a press conference, expressed concern over the motive behind these actions and said: “Nobody knows what this Delhi Jal Board case is about. This seems to be a backup plan to arrest Kejriwal anyhow and stop him from campaigning in the Lok Sabha polls.”
She said two summonses asking Mr Kejriwal to appear before the Central agency next week were received hours after the Lok Sabha poll date announcement on Saturday. She added one of them was related to the excise policy case and the other to the DJB. The AAP leader charged that the BJP was using the ED and CBI as its “goons” to finish off its political opponents.
Refuting the charges levelled by the AAP leaders, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said the ED was working independently. He also accused Mr Kejriwal of repeatedly flouting the law.
“Arvind Kejriwal’s former deputy chief minister has been in prison for over a year in the liquor scam case while another MP has also been in jail for a long time, but the repeated assertion by the Aam Aadmi Party that there was no scam in the liquor policy is ludicrous,” Mr Sachdeva said.
