Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s name in connection with the now-scrapped excise policy matter came up for the first time in the remand application filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K. Kavitha while she was presented in the court on March 16.
The ED, while seeking custody of K. Kavitha, submitted in the court on March 16 that she is one of the “key conspirators and beneficiaries” of the alleged Delhi excise policy scam and conspired with top leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), providing them kickbacks amounting to Rs 100 crore, and in return, they received undue favours in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi excise policy.
The Rouse Avenue court had subsequently sent Kavitha — daughter of former Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao — arrested in Hyderabad on March 15 after searches at her house, to the ED’s custody till March 23.
“K. Kavitha orchestrated a deal with Delhi government, CM Arvind Kejriwal and then Dy CM and then Minister of Excise, Manish Sisodia, wherein she, along with other members of the South Group, paid them kickbacks through a string of intermediaries and middlemen. In exchange for the kickbacks paid to the leaders of AAP, she had access to the policy formulation and was offered provisions to ensure a favourable position to her,” read the ED’s application in the court.
The ED also alleged that she further got stakes in the partnership of Indo Spirits, through her “dummy” Arun Pillai, without substantial investment in this firm and distribution business of Pernod Ricard India Pvt Ltd, which is one of the biggest manufacturers in the country and thus made Indo Spirits, the most profitable L1 in the Delhi Excise policy 2021-22 period, and recouped proceeds of crime in guise of profits.
“Further, in the policy, the profit margin of the wholesaler was increased to 12 per cent so that out of this margin, a portion of it could be taken back as kickbacks. This was done to create a continuous stream of illegal funds for the AAP in the form of kickbacks from the wholesalers and for the South Group to recover the kickbacks paid and further generate profits from this entire conspiracy,” the application claimed.
The ED claimed that Kavitha and the others paid Rs 100 crore bribes to the top leaders of the AAP which is evident from the statement of Srinivasulu Reddy, dated July 14, 2023, recorded under Section 50 of the PMLA and his statement dated July 17, 2023, recorded under Section 164 of CrPC.
The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday evening arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the liquor policy case, hours after the Delhi High Court rejected his plea seeking protection from ‘coercive action’ by the agency, which has served repeated summons to him.
The AAP national convenor was arrested after over two hours of questioning by an ED team, which included a Joint Director, at his residence.
Kejriwal is the biggest name to be arrested in the alleged scam, after K. Kavitha, former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, and AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, among others.