AAP named as accused in Delhi excise policy case; ED files chargesheet against Arvind Kejriwal

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday filed a chargesheet against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the excise policy-linked money laundering case and also named the party as accused, giving a new turn to the matter.

The federal agency had informed the same on Tuesday during former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia's bail plea hearing.

On Thursday, during a hearing in Supreme Court related to Kejriwal's challenge to his arrest in the money laundering case, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the ED, told a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta that the agency proposed to file a prosecution complaint (charge sheet) against Kejriwal and the AAP.


"We will do it shortly. It is in the pipeline," he had told the court.

Raju claimed the probe agency has enough evidence to show that Kejriwal demanded Rs 100 crore bribe which was used by AAP in the Goa assembly poll campaign.

"We have direct evidence that Kejriwal stayed in a seven-star hotel, whose bills were partly paid by an accused in the case," Raju submitted, adding Kejriwal played a key role in the formulation of the now scrapped Delhi excise policy. He alleged that Kejriwal, as the national convenor of the AAP, was vicariously responsible for the alleged scam. Kejriwal, despite being the chief minister, does not hold any departmental portfolio.

The Delhi chief minister was arrested on March 21 in the money laundering case. The Supreme Court on May 10 granted him interim bail till June 1. It ordered him to surrender on June 2.

However, the apex court barred him from visiting his office or the Delhi secretariat, and signing official files unless absolutely necessary for obtaining the lieutenant governor's approval.