Delhi Court to consider ED’s chargesheet against Arvind Kejriwal and AAP on May 20

Delhi court to consider ED chargesheet against Arvind Kejriwal and AAP in money laundering case on May 20.

A Delhi court on May 18 decided that it will consider the supplementary chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on May 20 in the Delhi Excise Police case. The central agency on May 17 had submitted the supplementary chargesheet in the Rouse Avenue Court here. It had formally named Mr. Kejriwal and the AAP as accused in the alleged money laundering case.

Special Judge Kaveri Baweja has posted the matter on May 20 for hearing.

The ED has filed its seventh supplementary chargesheet in the case and booked Mr. Kejriwal, AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and Delhi’s former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. The AAP chief and Mr. Singh are out on bail in the case. Mr. Sisodia is languishing in prison since February 2023.

This prosecution complaint filed by the ED is based on the first information report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 17, 2022, against Mr. Sisodia and 14 others, associated with the AAP and liquor manufacturers/sellers. It alleges that the Delhi policy extended an extraordinarily high profit margin of 12% for wholesalers and almost 185% profit margin for retailers, which was subsequently withdrawn by the state.

After the CBI case, the ED filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, alleging that the money earned through the excise policy was diverted through “hawala” channels to be spent on the AAP’s campaign in Goa ahead of the Assembly elections there in 2022.