AAP used hawala, cash route to funnel liquor policy kickbacks for Goa polls: ED

The Enforcement Directorate has accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of “using” a part of the ₹100 crore kickbacks allegedly received from the ‘south group’ liquor lobby to meet its expenditure for the Goa Assembly poll campaign in 2022.

The Enforcement Directorate has accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of "using" a part of the ₹100 crore kickbacks allegedly received from the 'south group' liquor lobby to meet its expenditure for the Goa Assembly poll campaign in 2022.

The accusation has been made in the agency's supplementary charge sheet filed in the Delhi Excise policy-linked money laundering case.

It has arraigned as accused a media publicity company, Chariot Productions Media Pvt. Ltd., and its owner-promoter Rajesh Joshi in the prosecution complaint. A Delhi court took cognisance of this charge sheet on Monday.

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"A careful perusal of findings of investigation has revealed that several persons, including Rajesh Joshi and his company Chariot Productions Media Pvt Ltd, are actually involved in several processes/activities connected with a part of proceeds of crime ie. the kickbacks of ₹100 crore received from the South Group," the ED alleged.

"Chariot Productions Media Pvt Ltd is not only involved in making payments through banking channel but also in cash through hawala network... and the actual beneficiary of these payments is AAP as these payments were used for meeting expenditure of Goa Elections in year 2022," it alleged.

It said the money laundering investigation launched by it in this case last year under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) found that "a part of proceeds of crime of ₹30 crore were transferred through hawala network to make payments to vendors for advertisement in Goa election campaign of AAP."