E-Paper
ED raids Delhi minister Raaj Kumar Anand's premises ahead of Kejriwal's questioning
Delhi labour minister Raaj Kumar Anand's premises were raided by ED starting Thursday early morning.
The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday morning reached the residence of Delhi minister Raaj Kumar Anand -- ahead of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's questioning by the agency today. Apart from the minister's residence in the Civil Lines area, ED raids were underway at 9 premises linked to him. While Kejriwal will be questioned over a money laundering probe in connection with Delhi's liquor policy, the raids are Raaj Kuman Anand's premises were because of a charge sheet filed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on charges of false declarations in imports for customs evasion of more than ₹7 crore apart from international hawala transactions, sources said.
An MLA from Patel Nagar, 57-year-old labour minister Raj Kumar Anand was allocated education and health ministries after Manish Siisodia and Satyendar Jain's resignations early this year. Later, health was given to Saurabh Bharadwaj and education to Atishi.
The raids come at a time when Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and AAP MP Sanjay Singh are in jail – in connection with different cases. Kejriwal will be questioned today by the ED in the liquor case in connection with which Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh were arrested. This is not the first time that Kejriwal would be facing questioning in the liquor case. In April, Kejriwal was summoned by the CBI and was questioned for 9 hours.
Aam Aadmi Party said it got to know that the ED would be arresting Kejriwal. If Kejriwal gets arrested, the party and the Delhi government will run from jail, Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Wednesday. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha said after Kejriwal all opposition leaders will be targetted and put in jail ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election – Hemant Soren, Tejashwi Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, MK Stalin, Pinarayi Vijayan etc.
