The arrest of Arvind Kejriwal by the Central Bureau of Investigation has opened a new battle front for the Aam Aadmi Party as the sitting chief minister is now facing charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act. When the CBI first registered a case under this Act in 2022 in the Delhi liquor policy scam, it did not name Kejriwal as an accused.
It was the Enforcement Directorate probe against the CM under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act that had so far elaborated on his alleged role in laundering the proceeds of crime, including in the Goa assembly polls, as the national convenor of the AAP. But the net has been widened with his arrest by the CBI on corruption charges.
A Delhi court on Wednesday remanded Kejriwal to three-day CBI custody .
The onus of proving charges of corruption and bribe taking by public servants lies with the CBI as it falls under the ambit of the PC Act. The ED is separately investigating the alleged money trail in the case.
On April 23, the CBI got permission to act against Kejriwal under the PC Act which mandates the central agency to take sanction to prosecute at two stages—before registering an FIR and before a chargesheet is filed against the public servant or government functionaries . In this case, the LG has given permission to proceed against the chief minister.
The CBI probe is now expected to delve into the larger conspiracy of the alleged liquor policy scam where the role of the Delhi Group of Ministers (GoM), consisting of senior AAP leaders, in tweaking the policy to allegedly benefit the “south group” is once again at centre stage.
The role of the chief minister’s office has come under cloud as the CBI sleuths are examining evidence against Kejriwal’s close aide Vijay Nair who was allegedly given the responsibility to coordinate the meetings with the “south group” including the BRS leaders from Hyderabad.
The report prepared by the close aides of Kejriwal, says CBI, became the policy in which profit margins were increased from six to twelve per cent. And those papers, where certain officers refused to sign on the changes, have gone missing, explained the CBI which has in its possession several WhatsApp chats exchanged by the accused as well as details of travel meetings with the “south group” at a convention centre of a five star hotel in south Delhi.
The CBI told the court that even though it had taken permission to act against the CM in April, it showed restraint due to Lok Sabha elections and the hearings going on in Supreme Court on the ED probe .
The CBI may confront the CM with evidence it has collected in the case so far like statements of former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on how the profit margins were raised. Sources said the CBI found a draft note of the Group of Ministers from Sisodia’s computer dated March 15, 2021, which capped the profit margins for liquor wholesalers at five per cent. However, the final draft of the GoM given by Sisodia to his secretary three days later increased the profit margin to 12 per cent, the sources said.
The CBI sleuths found that the number of pages allegedly photocopied or printed by the “south group” members in the hotel's business centre was the same as the GoM draft report allegedly handed over by Sisodia to his secretary. The draft contained 12 per cent profit for wholesalers besides higher turnover eligibility for them which was included in the final report of the GOM, said officials.
The AAP has, meanwhile, called it a fake case by the CBI to frame the chief minister who had approached the Supreme Court for bail in the money laundering case.
