Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday questioned the locus standi of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for arresting him in the multi-crore liquor gate scam merely on the basis of statements of some, including his former Cabinet colleague Manish Sisodia’s secretary.
Kejriwal asked the court whether these four statements are enough to arrest a sitting Chief Minister.
“I am named by four witnesses in the excise policy case. Are four statements enough to arrest a sitting CM?”, alleged Kejriwal.
He was produced in a special court on Thursday where his ED custody was extended by four days till April 1. The probe agency had sought seven-day custody of the AAP chief.
Kejriwal was supposed to do an “expose” on Friday as per his wife’s Sunita statement a day earlier.
Kejriwal submitted in the open court during the proceedings that statements of witnesses recorded by the investigating agency do not in any manner connect him with the alleged offences and questioned his arrest in the matter.
Furthermore, the Chief Minister said Sarath Reddy, an approver in the case, got bail after he made a statement against him who himself donated `55 crore to the BJP. “I have evidence of this. Money trail is established as he donated the funds after being arrested,” the Chief Minister said.
Kejriwal’s submissions were strongly objected to by ED counsel Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who also questioned why attempts were being made to link the BJP with the excise policy case.
Raju had argued that Kejriwal’s statements to the ED’s questioning have been evasive.
“He (Kejriwal) wants to play to the gallery. How does he know how many documents are with ED? This is all figment of imagination ... the AAP received the kickbacks which they used in Goa elections. There is a clear cut chain ... The money that they say came to the BJP has nothing to do with the liquor scam. There is no quid pro quo... The CM is not above law. He is an ordinary man. We have material to show that this very person demanded 100 crore kickback,” Raju contended.
In its remand application, the ED said during Kejriwal’s custodial interrogation, his statements were recorded over five days but he was “giving evasive replies”.
Kejriwal alleged that the ED investigation had two objectives — one, to create a smokescreen in front of the country that Aam Aadmi Party was corrupt and did the scam and two, to do an “extortion racket” for collecting money.
Reddy is the director of Aurobindo Pharma Limited and one of the co-accused-turned-approvers in the case.
The AAP national convener personally addressed the Delhi court today and made the submissions in Hindi after taking permission from the court despite his lawyers being present and he did not oppose the ED’s remand extension request.
“Ham ED ki remand oppose nahi kar rahe. Jitne din chaahe wo mujhe custody m rakh le. Par ye ghotala hai (loose translation: I am not opposing the ED’s plea for remand. They can keep me in custody for as long as they want. But this is all a scam),” Kejriwal told the court.
“So far, the CBI has filed 31,000 pages in this case in the court and 294 witnesses have been examined in this case. The 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 in a jam-packed courtroom.
Elaborating on the four statements mentioning his name, Kejriwal said C Arvind, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s secretary gave a statement. According to it, Sisodia handed over some excise policy-related documents to C Arvind in his (Kejriwal’s) presence, in the Chief Minister’s official residence.
“He has only stated that Sisodia gave some documents to C Arvind. Madam, several MLAs, Ministers and dignitaries come with their secretaries to my house.
“They do side-talks 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 Chief Minister?” Kejriwal said.
Giving details of the second statement in which his name appeared, Kejriwal said Magunta Srinivas Reddy is an MP from (Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister) Jagan Mohan Reddy’s party (YSRCP).
“Magunta Srinivas Reddy came to my office at 4.30 pm 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 the land does not come under us, it comes under the Lieutenant Governor (LG),” Kejriwal said. The Delhi Chief Minister further said Magunta Srinivas Reddy gave three statements to the agency but only one was considered.
“Why the only statement that is against Kejriwal has been 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.
He said Sarath Chandra Reddy, who was the fourth person to make a statement mentioning his name, stated nothing against the Chief Minister in his two statements before his arrest and nine statements after being arrested.
“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.
Minutes before being produced in a city court on Thursday, Kejriwal was asked about Saxena’s statement. In his response, the Chief Minister said, “This is a political conspiracy. The people will give a reply.”
“On perusal of the statements recorded in the course of investigation and in view of the fact that extension of custodial interrogation of the accused has been sought for further sustained and detailed interrogation for the reason as stated hereinabove, the ED custody of accused is hereby extended till April 1, 2024 on the same terms and conditions as per order dated 22.03.2024. Accused is directed to be produced before this court on 01.04.2024 at 11.30 am. IO is directed to ensure that further interrogation and confrontation etc. of accused is done without any delay,” Special Judge Kaveri Baweja said in her eight pages order.
“Having considered the submission made before this court and considering the grounds as cited by the Investigating Agency, there appear to be sufficient reasons to permit further custodial interrogation of the accused, particularly keeping in view the submissions that he is required to be confronted with the material collected and statements recorded so far in the course of investigation. It has been submitted on behalf of ED that data extracted/retrieved from the digital devices and further details which have been sought by Investigating Agency through various authorities are also required to be confronted with the arrestee,” the order said.
“The plea of the accused (Kejriwal) that there is no material against him was rebutted by ASG by way of his submissions that the matter is not at the stage of being adjudicated and hence, the above submissions are wholly irrelevant at this point of time. He further submitted that there is also no merit in the submissions that the ED has not placed on record the material favouring the accused and questioned as to how the accused has knowledge about documents in the custody of ED. It is further submitted that selective submissions have been made by the accused and in fact there is sufficient material to show the money trail of the proceeds of crime generated in the form of kickbacks in the Delhi Liquor scam and also to show that a part of the said proceeds of crime to the tune of approximately Rs 45 crores were sent through Hawala and utilised by AAP in Goa Assembly elections in 2021-22,” the order said.
