New Delhi:

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will boycott President Droupadi Murmu’s address to the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Thursday to protest against the arrest of its convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

AAP general secretary (organisation) and Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak slammed the BJP over the arrest of Kejriwal and said they will boycott the address.

Mr Kejriwal was on Wednesday arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam being probed by it.

President Murmu will address the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, where she is expected to unveil the priorities of the newly-elected government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

President Murmu’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament will also be the first after the constitution of the 18th Lok Sabha. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Enforcement Directorate today claimed that they have uncovered a money trail showing that the Aam Aadmi Party received kickbacks worth Rs 100 crore in the Delhi liquor policy case. The probe agency told the court that Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, was the ‘kingpin’ in the corruption case.

The ED’s case is that the Delhi liquor policy 2021-22 provided an exceptionally high-profit margin of 12 per cent for wholesalers and nearly 185 per cent for retailers. A key focus of the investigation into the Delhi liquor policy case was on an alleged network of middlemen, businessmen and politicians which the central agencies have called the “South Group”.

Here are the claims made by the probe agency in court today:

– Arvind Kejriwal is the ‘Kingpin’ and key conspirator in the case. “He is directly involved in the implementation of the policy and giving favour to the South group,” Additional Solicitor-General SV Raju, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate, said.

– Arvind Kejriwal demanded Rs 100 crore from some accused from ‘South group’ for Punjab elections, ED tells court while seeking his custody.

– The Delhi Chief Minister acted as a ‘middleman’ between South Group and the accused in the liquor case, the agency alleged.

– Proceeds of crime is not only the Rs 100 crore bribe received but also the profits made by the bribe payers – it was over Rs 600 crore the probe agency told court.

– “Rs 45 crores received from the South group were used by Aam Aadmi Party in the Goa campaign in 2021-22,” Mr Raju said.

– The money came to Goa through 4 routes, the agency said hinting at a hawala.

New Delhi:

The Delhi High Court has sought the ED’s stand on a petition by Hyderabad businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai challenging his arrest and remand in a money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, wherein he claims “third degree” methods were applied to obtain information.

“Third degree” refers to brutality by police officers interrogating an accused.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma on Friday asked the probe agency to file a response with respect to the maintainability of the plea.

Advocate Nitesh Rana, appearing for the petitioner, argued that the March 6 arrest order of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the subsequent remand orders passed by the trial court sending him to the agency’s custody and then to judicial custody were in violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

In his plea, the petitioner submitted that no grounds for arrest, either oral or written, were ever provided to him, as required under Section 19(1) of the PMLA, and that this also violates his constitutional rights.

It is further contended that the remand orders did not record any satisfaction of whether the ED had materials on record to form “reasons to believe” that the petitioner is guilty of an offense under the PMLA.

“The Directorate of Enforcement, in a vindictive manner and solely as a witch-hunting exercise, has employed coercive tactics to obtain information and used third-degree measures on the petitioner/applicant herein as well as the other accused,” the petition said.

The ED “was enabled to act in such an illegal manner by the impugned arrest order as well as the impugned remand orders, which in itself is grounds to quash the said impugned arrest order and the impugned remand orders,”, it stated.

The ED’s counsel contended that the petition was not maintainable.

The court has listed the matter for further hearing on November 3, when the petitioner’s bail plea is also scheduled for consideration.

Earlier this month, the petitioner had sought bail in the case, saying there was not an iota of evidence to keep him in jail.

On June 8, a trial court here dismissed Pillai’s plea for bail, saying his role was more serious than that of some other accused who are still in jail and that prima facie ED’s case was genuine.

Pillai was not only a participant in the “conspiracy,” but prima facie, he was also found to have been connected with different activities related to the proceeds, including its concealment, possession, acquisition, or use, and projecting it as untainted property, the trial court had said.

The ED has claimed in its charge sheet filed in the case that Pillai was a close associate of BRS MLC K. Kavitha. The ED’s money laundering case stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR.

According to the CBI and the ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 (now scrapped), and undue favors were extended to license holders.

The Delhi government had implemented the excise policy on November 17, 2021, but scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption.