(MENAFN- AsiaNet News) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will name the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as an accused in a fresh money laundering investigation involving the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam. This is the first time a national party has been identified as an accused in a chargesheet submitted by any agency in a corruption investigation.
The central investigation agency is also anticipated to identify Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as an accused for the first time on the chargesheet. In the chargesheet, the ED would describe Kejriwal as the 'kingpin' and primary conspirator in the liquor policy case.
The ED has claimed it has established a money trail linked to Kejriwal.
Previously, the ED stated before a Delhi court that Rs 45 crore in bribes paid by the AAP were intended to fund the party's campaign for the 2022 Goa Assembly elections.
Filing a chargesheet against an accused is mandatory within two months of arrest. Kejriwal will complete two months in judicial custody on May 21. He was arrested on March 21 in the liquor policy case and is presently lodged in Tihar Jail.
This will be the seventh charge sheet by the ED in this case in which it has arrested 18 people so far including Kejriwal's party colleague and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and others.
It is alleged that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 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. The policy was subsequently scrapped and Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe, following which the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
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