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ED raids Kejriwal’s secy, AAP MP in Jal Board case
Kejriwal in a post on X said ED did not find “a single paisa, any jewellery or property of any kind, or any papers” in Tuesday’s raids
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday conducted raids at 12 locations, including those connected to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s personal secretary Bibhav Kumar and the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Rajya Sabha member ND Gupta, in a money laundering case linked to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) — a move that sparked further political turmoil amid the already raging controversy over the federal agency’s probe into the Delhi excise policy case.
ED officials aware of the matter said that they were investigating whether the AAP and some officials in the party received kickbacks worth ₹21 crore in an illegal tender process in DJB. These funds, the officials claimed, may have been used to fund election campaigning by the AAP.
The party, which has been in power in Delhi since 2015 and Punjab since 2021, hit back sharply.
Kejriwal in a post on X said ED did not find “a single paisa, any jewellery or property of any kind, or any papers” in Tuesday’s raids. He went on to question if such “unfounded” raids amounted to “sheer hooliganism.”
“It is clear that these raids and arrests are being done only out of political malice, to harass us, to crush the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). It’s been two years since they have been investigating. Not a single new penny or any evidence has been found,” he said.
To be sure, this led to a further escalation, with the BJP demanding that Kejriwal step down as Delhi chief minister because of the “scam” unearthed in the DJB.
The raids began around 7am at the residences of Kumar, Gupta, and chartered accountant Pankaj Mangal, among other locations.
The action was linked to ED’s January 31 arrest of retired DJB chief engineer Jagdish Kumar Arora and contractor Anil Kumar Aggarwal in a money laundering case that stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) first information report (FIR) filed in July 2022.
The federal agency is probing alleged irregularities related to at least two DJB tenders.
In the first matter, ED alleged – based on a complaint by CBI – that Arora “illegally” awarded the contract for supply, installation, testing and commissioning (SITC) of electromagnetic flow meters to NKG Infrastructure Ltd in September 2018 for five years for a total negotiated cost of over ₹38 crore despite the company not meeting the technical eligibility criteria.
ED has alleged that out of the contract value of ₹38 crore, about ₹17 crore was spent on the tender work, and the remaining funds were siphoned off under the guise of various false expenses.
An officer aware of the probe alleged that Kumar may have received these kickbacks, and that these may have been passed on as election funds to the AAP. He added that Gupta and Mangal were also connected with the tendering process.
HT reached out for comments to Bibhav Kumar and ND Gupta, but did not receive a response till the time of going to press on Tuesday night.
The second matter pertains to a FIR filed by the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Delhi government in November 2022 into a suo motu complaint alleging that DJB violated norms while awarding a tender for setting up automotive bill payment machines at different DJB offices.
The tender for the kiosks, set up for facilitating consumers in bill payment through various modes of payments including cash and cheques, was awarded to Corporation Bank in 2012, and further subcontracted to Chennai-based private companies, Freshpay IT Solutions Pvt Ltd and Aurrum E-payments Pvt Ltd.
“These companies had violated norms as prescribed in the agreement by not depositing the cash payment collections in the bank account of DJB, as stipulated in the agreement, and not transferring the amount to DJB within the prescribed time period. The contract was initially awarded for three years, which was extended by DJB from time to time till FY2019-20 despite continued delay and non-transfer of bill payment amount collected for DJB,” according to a third ED officer who requested anonymity.
According to the ED probe, during the demonetisation period, there was cash collections worth ₹10.40 crore, which were not deposited or transferred to DJB and funds collected in 2019 were reconciled with bill payments of demonetisation period after gap of more than 300 days.
The ED probe has further revealed that total principal loss incurred to DJB during the whole period of the tender was ₹14.41 crore, which is still outstanding with private entities.
Kerjiwal, meanwhile, said the ED actions were part of BJP’s attempts to intimidate the AAP and that nothing had been found in any such raids from AAP leaders. “Today my PA’s house was raided by 23 ED officers for 16 hours. After a thorough investigation they found nothing. Not a single paisa, any jewellery or property of any kind, or any papers were found. They raided Manish Sisodia’s house, nothing was found there. They raided Satyendra Jain’s place, nothing was found. They raided Sanjay Singh’s place, nothing was found. Can ED enter anyone’s house without any reason? Is it not sheer hooliganism? It is clear that all these raids and arrests are being done only out of political malice, to harass us, to crush the Aam Aadmi Party... People will never tolerate this kind of hooliganism,” he wrote on X.
Other than the DJB case, senior AAP leaders such as Delhi CM Kejriwal are also currently being investigated by ED in a money laundering probe linked to alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22. Kejriwal has so far skipped several ED’s summons for questioning in connection with the excise policy case. The policy, which aimed to revitalise the city’s flagging liquor business and replace a sales-volume-based regime with a licence fee-based one for traders, was scrapped when Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena recommended a probe into alleged irregularities. The policy promised swankier stores, free of the infamous metal grilles, ultimately giving customers a better buying experience. The policy also introduced discounts and offers on the purchase of liquor, a first for Delhi.
BJP’s Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, who is the leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, said Kejriwal should step down as CM because the DJB “scam” took place when the latter was heading the water body.
“During the period when the scam took place, Arvind Kejriwal was DJB chairman. Kejriwal, who preaches morality to the world, should himself set at least an example of morality. When the AAP came to power in 2015, DJB had a fund surplus of ₹600 crores. Today the DJB is operating a loss of ₹73,000 crores. Many cases of corruption have come to light... The ED investigation will remove the mask from the faces of AAP leaders,” Bidhuri said.
(With inputs from Alok KN Mishra)
