NEW DELHI: Continuing the spree of arrest in the Delhi Excise scam, the Directorate of Enforcement arrested Rajesh Joshi owner of Chariot Media for alleged money laundering in connection with the scam.
Joshi was a beneficiary of kickback money that originated out of the ‘tweaked’ policy which favoured ‘liquor lobbies’ and was allegedly laundered and distributed amongst middlemen, government and politicians.
According to ED, he spent huge amounts of money received from the kickback on behalf of AAP for the campaign during the elections in Goa.
In the second chargesheet filed in connection with the scam, ED said, "one of the primes accused Vijay Nair had received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore from the South Group (whose prominent persons are M S Reddy, Raghav, Magunta, Sharath Reddy and M Kavitha) on behalf of AAP leaders.”
The chargesheet went on to claim that part of the Rs 100 crore was used in AAP’s Goa poll campaign in 2022. “Cash payments to the tune of Rs 70 lakh were made to volunteers who were part of the survey teams,” it alleged.
According to ED sources, Joshi and his firm was involved in the disbursal of the said kickback money for the Goa polls. ED will produce Joshi before a special. PMLA court on Thursday and the agency will seek his custodial remand.
Earlier this week, ED arrested Punjab-based businessman Gautam Malhotra in the money laundering investigation linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy case.
Gautam, the son of a former SAD MLA Deepak Malhotra, a close aide of F&B business entrepreneurs and an accused in the excise case Dinesh Arora, was arrested on Tuesday night. He, being associated with Oasis Group was remanded in ED custody for interrogation till February 15.