Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday accused the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of running a racket in the name of investigating the Capital’s now-scrapped excise policy with the sole intention of crushing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and implicating him, prompting a vehement denial from the federal agency that secured an extension of the politician’s custody till April 1.
The verbal exchange occurred during the remand hearing of Kejriwal, whose six-day ED custody ended on Thursday. After being produced before special judge Kaveri Baweja a little after 2pm at the Rouse Avenue courts, the CM attempted to link a “racket” in the excise policy probe to money received by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) through electoral bonds from some businessmen linked to the investigation. The agency rejected the accusation, saying that there was proof that the party “received a bribe” that was used in the 2022 Goa elections.
“ED is trying to finish off AAP and create a smokescreen to crush the party,” Kejriwal said in Hindi in court. He did not oppose the application for further custody. “We are agreeable to as many days as ED would want to keep us on remand.”
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{{/usCountry}}The special judge agreed to extend the remand period by another four days, directing Kejriwal to be produced next on April 1. To be sure, Kejriwal has already approached the Delhi high court, challenging his arrest and remand order. The high court on Wednesday refused to grant him interim relief but agreed to hear his plea on April 3.
Kejriwal spoke about each of the four people whose statements before the agencies mentioned him — former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s secretary C Arvind, YSR Congress leader Magunta Srinivas Reddy, his son Raghav Magunta, and businessman Sarath Chandra Reddy — and were part of the case against him.
Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 by ED, hours after the Delhi high court denied his request for interim protection from arrest — a stunning turn of events that left the Capital’s politics in turmoil and pushed to new heights the ongoing conflict between the Union government and the AAP. The party has insisted that Kejriwal will continue as CM and he has issued two orders from jail, sparking condemnation from the BJP.
After Kejriwal was produced in court on Thursday, his lawyer Ramesh Gupta said the CM wanted to address the court in person. The AAP chief spoke for 10 minutes, addressing allegations against him and pointing the finger at the BJP and ED.
“I have evidence that there is a racket operating. Sarath Chandra Reddy gave over ₹55 crore donation to the BJP. Money trail is established. He donated this money to BJP after being arrested (in the excise scam case),” he said.
Hyderabad-based businessman P Sarath Chandra Reddy, director of Aurobindo Pharma, was arrested in this case in November 2022. After the electoral bond data was revealed two weeks ago, it showed that Aurobindo Pharma donated ₹50 crore to the BJP in November 2023 through affiliates. In 2022, the company had purchased bonds worth ₹4.5 crore that were encashed by the BJP.
To be sure, his party had raised allegations about Reddy and the money donated through electoral bonds days after the data was first released.
ED, represented by additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju and assisted by special public prosecutor (SPP) Naveen Kumar Matta, rejected the charges. “There is no different standard to arrest a chief minister. He does not get exonerated if he is the CM. The right to arrest him is no different from that of an ordinary person.”
Kejriwal – whose comments came a day after his wife Sunita Kejriwal said that the CM would make a big expose – said the CBI had filed 31,000 pages in the court and examined 294 witnesses. “ED has investigated 162 people and filed a 25,000-page report so far. By combining all these documents and reports, why have I been arrested? My name figures only in four statements,” he said .
Kejriwal said C Arvind, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s secretary, gave a statement. According to it, C Arvind handed over some excise policy-related documents to Sisodia in his (Kejriwal’s) presence, in the CM’s residence. “He has only stated that C Arvind gave some documents to Sisodia. Madam, several MLAs, ministers and dignitaries come with their secretaries to my house. They talk on the side and hand over documents to each other. How do I know who is giving what to whom? Is this statement a sufficient reason to arrest the sitting CM?” Kejriwal said.
Giving details of the second statement, Kejriwal said Magunta Srinivas Reddy is an MP from YSR Congress. “Magunta Srinivas Reddy came to my office at 4.30pm on March 16, 2021. He had sent an e-mail to my office that he is an MP and wanted to meet me. My office gave him an appointment to meet me after 10 days. He came over and said I want to open my family’s charitable trust in Delhi. I told him that land does not come under us, it comes under the lieutenant Governor (LG),” Kejriwal said.
The Delhi chief minister asked Magunta Srinivas Reddy to give him the letter which he will forward to the lieutenant governor.
He said on September 16, 2022, Reddy’s house was raided and ED asked him whether he had met Kejriwal. When Reddy replied in the affirmative, saying his meeting was about seeking land for his family’s trust, Kejriwal alleged ED was “not happy” and arrested his son in February 2023.
“When the son remains arrested for five months, the father changes his statement. He changed his statement on July 16, 2023, and his son was released on July 18. Mission accomplished. That means the only mission of ED was to get me trapped,” Kejriwal said.
The CM further said Reddy gave three statements to the agency but only one was considered. “Why the only statement that is against Kejriwal was included in the 25,000 pages of ED report and the other two statements were not considered? All the three statements should have been brought to the notice of the court, so that it could decide the truth in the case,” he said.
About the statement of the third person, Raghav Magunta, Kejriwal said out of his seven statements, six were not against him (Kejriwal). But as soon as he gave the seventh statement against him, Magunta was released from jail. “The six statements which are not against me have not been brought on record,” the CM said.
He said Sarath Chandra Reddy, the fourth person to make a statement, stated nothing against the CM in his two statements before his arrest and nine statements after his arrest. “After he was kept in jail for six months, he (Sarath Chandra Reddy) finally succumbed and gave another statement on April 25, 2023.The only thing he said against me was that he had gone to meet the CM along with Vijay Nair,” he said.
Kejriwal asked the judge whether these four statements were enough to arrest a sitting CM.
Without mentioning the BJP or the Centre, he alleged that the probe wanted to make the AAP an accused in the excise policy case and easily operate electoral bond scam behind all of this. “They were extorting huge funds in the name of electoral bonds,” he added.
Raju countered Kejriwal and his counsel. “Persons who have later named him have disclosed reasons to do so. It is in the papers. All these submissions have been made before the Delhi high court.” The ASG further said the claims about papers factoring him being with the agency was “a figment of his imagination”.
“He is the person in-charge of affairs of the AAP which has received the bribe amounts used in the Goa elections. We have witnesses to say the money came through hawala from the South Group. There is a chain. He has selectively not talked about that chain,” the ASG said.
The CM repeatedly asked about the “money trail”. “This ₹100 crore money that they (ED) claim is not there anywhere. The scam started after ED took up the investigation.”
ED has alleged that Kejriwal was part of a conspiracy in which ₹100 crore bribe was paid to the AAP by the so-called South group who benefitted from changes made in the 2021-22 policy.
But ED justified the charges against Kejriwal. “He is the person in charge of the affairs of the AAP. The party has received the bribe which was used in Goa...We have witnesses to say ₹100 crore was given through hawala from South Group for Goa election. There is a chain. He (Kejriwal) has selectively not talked about the (money) chain.” Raju pointed out that Kejriwal needed to be confronted with individuals summoned from Goa to prove the chain. The agency also said that Kejriwal was giving “evasive” replies and not sharing income tax returns.
On the allegation of donations made to BJP, Raju categorically denied it had any links with the current investigation. “We are not concerned with anyone paying any money to any person. That has nothing to do with the liquor scam...BJP or anyone else did not have the right to make this policy.”
The ASG told the court that people who later named Kejriwal had disclosed reasons to do so. “He wants to play to the gallery. How does he know what documents are in ED custody. Everything he says is a figment of imagination...In any case, as of now, we are only concerned about extension of remand.”
Kejriwal is the third AAP leader to be arrested in connection with the irregularities in the Delhi excise case. The case was taken up by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after Delhi LG V K Saxena recommended a probe into the alleged irregularities in the policy in July 2022. Former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia and AAP MP Sanjay Singh are already in jail in connection with the same case.