ED gets Centre's sanction to prosecute Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia in excise policy case

The development is significant as a special PMLA court in Delhi had delayed the framing of charges against Arvind Kejriwal noting the absence of MHA sanction under the PMLA Act.
Aam Aadmi Party  chief Arvind Kejriwal and party leader Manish Sisodia, left address a press conference, in New Delhi.
Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal and party leader Manish Sisodia, left address a press conference, in New Delhi. (Photo| PTI)
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NEW DELHI: Amid high voltage campaign for Delhi Assembly elections, the Centre has authorised the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to initiate prosecution against former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in a money laundering case related to the now scrapped Delhi liquor policy.

According to official sources, ED received the prosecution orders against the two AAP leaders under the PMLA Act, earlier this month. 

The development is significant as a special PMLA court in Delhi had delayed the framing of charges against Arvind Kejriwal after he challenged the trial court’s decision to take cognizance of the chargesheet in the absence of specific sanction for prosecution under provisions of the PMLA.

Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has filed a chargesheet against Arvind Kejriwal under the Prevention of Corruption Act, received the necessary sanction for prosecution from the MHA in August of last year.

This decision follows the Supreme Court’s ruling on November 6, which mandated that the ED must also obtain prior sanction for prosecution under Section 197(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code (now Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita) in money laundering cases, similar to the requirement for the CBI.

Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have been accused of accepting bribes from the ‘South Group’, a cartel that controlled the sale and distribution of liquor in Delhi and allegedly profited from the excise policy implemented by the Delhi government for 2021-22.

Till date, the ED has conducted searches on 245 locations across the country including Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and other places in the case.

Over a dozen persons including Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Vijay Nair from AAP have been arrested in the case so far.

Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 under criminal provisions of the PMLA and named in a charge sheet, which the agency had filed on May 17.

In the charge sheet the ED has alleged that out of an alleged Rs 100 crore bribe received for favouring certain liquor traders, Rs 45 crore was used to fund AAP’s election campaign in Goa.

The agency in the charge sheet has claimed that as the national convenor and a member of AAP’s national executive, Kejriwal was eventually responsible for overseeing the fund of the party and its activities.

Kejriwal was granted bail in the case by the Supreme Court in September last year while Manish Sisodia walked out of jail in August.

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