SC to look into Kejriwal’s plea

Tuesday had seen the ED counter in the High Court that the arrest and subsequent remand of Mr. Kejriwal were natural outcomes of painstaking collection of evidence.

The agency, represented by Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, had informed the High Court that the procedure of arrest was correctly followed. Mr. Kejriwal was furnished with the grounds of his arrest in writing.

The agency had termed Mr. Kejriwal the kingpin and key conspirator of the Delhi excise “scam”.

The ED claimed he was involved in the conspiracy of formulation of the excise policy, and also engaged in demanding kickbacks from liquor businessmen in exchange for granting favours in the policy.

The agency argued that Mr. Kejriwal was involved in the use of proceeds of crime generated in the Goa election campaign of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). He was the national convenor of the party and its “ultimate decisionmaker”.

The ED argued that Vijay Nair, on behalf of Mr. Kejriwal and the AAP, received kickbacks to the tune of ₹100 crore from the ‘South Group’.

The ‘South Group’ was represented by Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Pillai and Buchi Babu. Mr. Boinpally facilitated the transfer of money in conspiracy with Vijay Nair and his associate Dinesh Arora, the ED had argued in the High Court.

The Central agency said the ‘South Group’ members had got control of the wholesaler business M/s Indo Spirits, and even retail zones, got the business of Pernod Ricard, and even got the L1 license granted despite multiple complaints and being in violation of the Excise Policy 202122.

According to the investigation carried out so far, the proceeds of the crime is about ₹45 crore, which was part of the bribe received from the ‘South Group’. The money was used in the AAP’s election campaign in Goa in 202122.