May 10th 2024.
On Friday, the Enforcement Directorate took a significant step in the ongoing Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case. According to official sources, they filed a fresh charge sheet, naming BRS leader K Kavitha and four others as the accused. The complaint, which is almost 200 pages long and includes annexures, was filed at the Rouse Avenue court under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Among the accused mentioned in the charge sheet are Kavitha, an MLC of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi party, and three employees of a company that handled the AAP's Goa campaign - Damodar Sharma, Prince Kumar, and Chanpreet Singh. Additionally, a former employee of India Ahead News Channel, Arvind Singh, has also been named as an accused. The special judge for ED and CBI cases, Kaveri Baweja, is expected to take up the charge sheet for cognisance on May 13. It is also anticipated that a similar complaint against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be filed next week.
The ED had previously arrested Kavitha, the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, on March 15 from her residence in Hyderabad. Another accused, Chanpreet, was arrested on April 15, with the agency alleging that he was responsible for managing cash funds for AAP's 2022 Goa assembly campaign. The three employees of Chariot company were also allegedly involved in the handling and movement of "bribe" funds paid by the "South Group" through "Angadiyas" and hawala route for the party's Goa campaign. Arvind Singh, the commercial head and production controller of India Ahead News, was arrested by the CBI in May last year for his alleged role in the transfer of these funds, which have been deemed as "kickbacks" of the "scam."
This is the seventh charge sheet filed by the ED in this case, with a total of 18 people being arrested so far, including Kejriwal, who was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court on Friday. The ED has accused Kavitha of being a key member of the "South Group," which allegedly paid the Aam Aadmi Party Rs 100 crore as kickbacks in exchange for a significant share of liquor licenses in Delhi. This was part of the excise policy for 2021-22, which was later scrapped due to allegations of corruption and cartelisation of liquor traders. The agency has also stated that Kavitha was involved in various activities related to proceeds of crime, amounting to at least Rs 292.8 crore.
In a related development, the Delhi High Court has requested the ED to provide their stand on a bail plea filed by Kavitha in this case. She was also arrested by the CBI while she was under judicial custody in the ED case. The trial court had denied her bail, stating that her role "prima facie appears as that of a key conspirator" in the criminal conspiracy to collect and pay upfront money to AAP through co-accused, in order to secure favorable provisions in the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22. Kavitha's bail plea filed in the high court claims that she has no involvement in the excise policy and is being falsely implicated in a criminal conspiracy orchestrated by the ruling party at the Centre, with the active connivance of the Enforcement Directorate. She has also argued that there is no evidence against her and that the witness statements are not credible.
The ED has alleged that out of the Rs 100 crore bribe provided by the "South Group," Rs 45 crore was used by AAP for the Goa assembly election campaign in 2022. The group includes Kavitha, TDP Ongole seat Lok Sabha candidate Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, his son Raghav Reddy, and others. The excise case revolves around alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22, which was later scrapped. The Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena had recommended a CBI probe into the irregularities, and the ED filed its money laundering case on August 22, 2022, after taking cognisance of the CBI FIR lodged on August 17, 2022.
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