Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, said to the Enforcement Directorate during questioning that he could not recall where he had placed his cell phone, which he was purportedly using when the Delhi excise policy was being prepared.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) head was arrested in the Delhi excise policy scam by the central agency on Thursday (21st March) and has been remanded to custody till 28th March. The ED stated that the phone that the AAP supremo had been using back then had gone missing.
#ArvindKejriwalArrested
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) March 25, 2024
– 'The phone used by Arvind Kejriwal during the 'liquor scam' period is missing. SOURCES
From the beginning of the probe, the ED has said that the key things of this case have been destroyed…: @bhavatoshsingh shares more details with Siddhartha Talya pic.twitter.com/GHQfSTCN2I
According to a report by NDTV, it is believed that this cell phone, which may hold relevant information concerning the excise policy scheme, is the 171st of such missing gadgets. According to the central investigation agency, 170 mobile phones have previously been untraceable.
Ultimately, the ED pieced together the case using the information gathered after tracking down 17 phones. The agency named Manish Sisodia as an accused in the chargesheet, which also included the data obtained from the 17 mobile phones.
The investigators said that the phones could have been destroyed to erase evidence. The agency’s chargesheet also stated that the majority of the information and evidence were obtained from the accused’s laptops and mobile phones.
The ED believes that most of those charged changed their laptops and mobile phones between May and August 2022.
According to reports, the Enforcement Directorate intends to retrieve certain data from the phone that Kejriwal reportedly used to speak to Sameer Mahendru, another accused in the liquor policy case. The Chief Minister is believed to have spoken with Mahendru on the phone and informed him that Vijay Nair was “his boy” and that he could “trust him”.
The ED chargesheet accused Vijay Nair, the AAP’s media in-charge, of working as a go-between for the ‘South Group,’ which allegedly paid the Kejriwal government Rs 100 crore in kickbacks to gain access into the spirits retail industry in Delhi.
In its remand appeal to a Delhi court on Friday (22nd March), the central investigative agency claimed that Kejriwal was the “key conspirator and kingpin of the Delhi excise policy scam”. It went on to allege that he was personally involved in the policy’s creation, demanding payments, as well as the processing of criminal proceeds.
However, Kejriwal refuted the claims, claiming that no proof linked him to the alleged swindle under the now-defunct program.
