On 24th April, the Enforcement Directorate filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on the petition filed against the arrest and custody of Aam Aadmi Party’s national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a lower court. According to the affidavit, Arvind Kejriwal is the mastermind and conspirator of the excise scam and the High Court has weighed all the factors and rendered a definitive ruling. The agency stated that Kejriwal is charged with money laundering, per the High Court’s ruling which is based on the evidence at its disposal.
Enforcement Directorate opposed Arvind Kejriwal’s plea challenging the High Court order, and maintained that Aam Aadmi Party, which was the main beneficiary of the proceeds of the scam, had committed the crime through him. ED highlighted that the Delhi High Court considered every fact and there is no merit in the petition opposing the order. The agency requested the Supreme Court to dismiss Kejriwal’s plea.
The Delhi government ministers, AAP leaders, and other individuals conspired with the Delhi Chief Minister to devise and orchestrate the Delhi Excise fraud, per the affidavit. Enforcement Directorate noted that the verdict of the High Court is entirely accurate, as Arvind Kejriwal had a direct hand in creating the Excise Policy 2021–2022. According to the agency, Manish Sisodia, Vijay Nair, and other South Group representatives colluded in the creation of the policy which was designed with the South Group’s interests in mind.
According to ED, Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party are responsible for the money laundering crime which is covered under section 70 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The investigative agency pointed out that the primary recipient of the criminal earnings from the Delhi Excise fraud is the Aam Aadmi Party. Arvind Kejriwal controls and conducts the major activities of Aam Aadmi Party. He is one of the Aam Aadmi Party’s founding members, as the witness statement makes evident. Kejriwal participated in the party’s policy deliberations as well, as per the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, the investigation agency informed that the Delhi Chief Minister was taken into custody after engaging in “large-scale” evidence tampering which involved the destruction of around 170 cell phones during the ‘scam’ and after the irregularities were exposed. The investigating officer had called the chief of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nine times, but he refused to appear before the agency, based on the affidavit. Furthermore, it clarified that Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest came about as a result of his continuous disregard for summons from the agency and his inability to secure protection from the Delhi High Court.
The Enforcement Directorate told the top court that the accused’s arrest, despite his high profile is based on considerable proof and does not violate the principles of free and fair elections, in response to the Chief Minister’s charge that the arrest was made too soon, particularly with the Lok Sabha elections being underway. The investigation agency further declared that protecting lawmakers facing criminal charges from arrest would compromise the integrity of the democratic process.
It added, “The arrest of a person for an offence based on material can never violate the concept of free and fair elections. If the aforesaid argument is accepted, politicians who are criminals would be granted immunity from arrest on the ground.” The agency underlined that “three different judicial authorities (courts) at three different levels” had reviewed the material that served as the basis for the investigating officer’s decision to arrest him.
The ED argued that Arvind Kejriwal’s “blatant disregard for the law” called for his arrest and added that “even on the date of the search during his interrogation while recording his statement under Section 17 of the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act), he was avoiding answering questions by being evasive and being totally non-co-operative even with respect to simple non-incriminating questions.”
Additionally, ED contended that it possessed “sufficient material” to establish the accused’s guilt of the offence covered by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). The ED further stated that his total non-cooperation made his arrest inevitable.
On 21st March, Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the investigation team from his official Delhi residence. He is being held at the Tihar jail at the moment. Notably, the Aam Aadmi Party has announced that the Chief Minister will continue to lead the government from prison and wouldn’t resign from office.
