NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Thursday saw its arrested chief minister himself arguing his case in the liquor policy scam. “I was named by four witnesses in the excise policy case. Are four statements enough to arrest a sitting CM?” he asked.
The court extended the custody of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) by four more days till April 1 in the scam. The Rouse Avenue Court saw heated arguments between Kejriwal and ED lawyers during the hearing. “Where is the Rs 100 crore liquor scam money the ED keeps harping on?” Kejriwal asked, adding that the entire liquor policy case is a political conspiracy to crush his Aam Aadmi Party.
During the previous hearing, the probe agency had sought to establish Kejriwal’s role in the formulation of the excise policy by citing a statement of
C Arvind, the then Secretary of former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia. Arvind told the ED that he was handed a draft report of a Group of Ministers on the excise policy by Sisodia at Kejriwal’s residence where former minister Satyendra Jain was also present.
Referring to this allegation, Kejriwal said because of his position, several ministers come to his residence and even exchange documents. “Is this statement sufficient to arrest a sitting CM?” he questioned.
On the statement of another accused-turned-approver Raghav Magunta to the ED, the CM said Magunta’s father gave six statements to the probe agency but did not say anything about Kejriwal. Magunta is the son of Buchi Babu, chartered accountant of BRS leader K Kavitha, who too is under arrest in the same case. The AAP chief argued that people are being turned approver and forced to change their statements.
Custody extension
“...there appears to be sufficient reasons to permit further custodial interrogation, particularly keeping in view the submissions that he (Kejriwal) is required to be confronted with the material collected and statements recorded so far,” special judge Kaveri Baweja said