Delhi court issues production warrant for Arvind Kejriwal in excise policy case

A Delhi court on Tuesday issued a production warrant for Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) while taking cognisance of the seventh supplementary chargesheet filed in connection with the excise policy.

Simultaneously, the court also took cognisance of the eighth supplementary chargesheet filed by ED and issued production warrants to Vinod Chauhan and issued summons to another accused Ashish Mathur, also named in the eighth supplementary chargesheet.

Special judge Kaveri Baweja while taking cognisance of the chargesheets, noted that there is sufficient material on record to proceed against the accused persons and listed the matter on July 12, when all the accused would be physically produced before the court.

The federal probe agency had filed a 200-page chargesheet naming Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as accused in the case on May 17.

The 55-year-old AAP convenor was arrested by the federal agency on March 21, hours after the Delhi high court denied his request for interim protection from arrest.

Also Read:HC issues notice in response to Kejriwal’s plea for more meetings with lawyers

ED has alleged that Kejriwal was intrinsically involved in the acts of policy formulation, kickback scheme and the final use of the proceeds of crime.

The federal agency pointed out that Kejriwal is involved in the commission of grave economic offences and there is ample evidence on record to link him to the commission of the offence of money laundering.

ED said that another accused Chauhan, who had handled transfer of ₹25.5 crore from Delhi to Goa, was also closely associated with Kejriwal.

The agency had filed its eighth supplementary chargesheet on June 28 naming Chauhan and Mathur as accused.

ED apprehended Chauhan from its Goa Zonal office under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on May 3 while Mathur, who is an alleged associate of Chauhan, has been chargesheeted without arrest.

Chauhan’s name had surfaced in connection with the probe into irregularities in the Delhi excise policy owing to his proximity to Kejriwal and a series of emails exchanged between the two seized by the ED.