NEW DELHI: The CBI on Monday filed its sixth and final supplementary chargesheet in connection with the liquor policy case, naming Arvind Kejriwal and five others, including AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak, in the Rouse Avenue Court.
The chargesheet was filed following conclusion of the CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped excise policy.
According to officials, the CBI had earlier filed one main chargesheet and four supplementary ones in the case in which former deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Telangana MLC K Kavitha and others have also been accused. Kejriwal was arrested by the agency in June.
The agency charged the CM as “one of the primary conspirators” in the case, the officials said, adding it is alleged that ex-media in-charge of AAP and a close aide of Kejriwal Vijay Nair was in touch with liquor traders.
The CBI claimed that the ex-post facto approval to Sisodia’s decisions on the liquor policy was given by the cabinet headed by Kejriwal. The agency alleged that the CM got the profit margin of liquor wholesalers enhanced from 5% to 12%.
Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 in a case linked to the alleged excise policy scam. Though the Supreme Court granted him interim bail, he is in jail as the CBI arrested him in the same case.
CBI officials said that in the chargesheet filed against Kavitha, liquor businessman Magunta Sreenivasalu Reddy (TDP MP) met Kejriwal on March 16, 2021 and sought support in his business in Delhi by bringing in changes in the policy. It was alleged that Kejriwal assured support to Reddy and asked him to contact Kavitha as she was working with his team on the excise policy, the officials said, adding that the CM had allegedly told Reddy to provide funds to the AAP.
HC reserves verdict on CM bail petition
The Delhi HC reserved its verdict on Kejriwal’s bail plea, with CM’s lawyers arguing his arrest by the CBI was an afterthought, aimed at countering the interim bail he received from the SC and CBI counsel DP Singh saying CM’s role in the scam was substantiated by direct evidence. P4
Order on Soren bail well reasoned: SC
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with a Jharkhand High Court order granting Hemant Soren bail in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. While dismissing ED’s plea, the SC bench termed the HC’s order “very well reasoned”, adding: “We don’t want to observe anything more... if we observe, you (ED) might be in difficulty.” P7
