ED questions Delhi CM Kejriwal's PA in excise policy money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate questioned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's PA Bibhav Kumar in the money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy, officials said

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday questioned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's PA Bibhav Kumar in the money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy, officials said.

Kumar deposed before the federal probe agency here and the investigators are recording his statement under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

His questioning is understood to be related to the ED's charges made before the court that at least 36 accused, including Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Bibhav Kumar, "destroyed or used" 170 phones to conceal evidence of "kickbacks" worth thousand of crores of rupees in the alleged scam.

The ED, till now, has filed two charge sheets or prosecution complaints in this case and has arrested a total of nine people.

The ED has alleged in a charge sheet submitted to the court that a part of the alleged Rs 100 crore "kickbacks" generated in the scrapped Delhi excise policy were "used" in the 2022 Goa assembly election campaign of the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.

The excise policy 2021-22 was scrapped in August last year and the Delhi LG later asked the CBI to probe the alleged irregularities.

The ED's money laundering stems from the CBI FIR.