Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 21: Ahead of the upcoming 2025 Assembly elections, Delhi Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena has given sanction to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to prosecute Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi excise policy case, sources at the LG’s office said on Saturday.
The ED had sought the LG’s permission on December 5 for prosecuting Mr Kejriwal in a case related to now-scrapped excise policy. Citing a November 6 Supreme Court judgment, the ED sought sanction for prosecution under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. In its letter to the Lt Governor, the ED said it found a “huge level of corruption in framing and implementation” of the excise policy.
Mr Kejriwal’s AAP, however, dismissed the reports as “fake news,” in a fresh row that broke out in the run-up to assembly elections in the national capital. The probe agency’s appeal was mentioned in prosecution complaint no. 7 filed in the Rouse Avenue court on May 17 this year. The court took cognisance of the complaint on July 9.
The AAP leaders Saurabh Bharadwaj, Priyanka Kakkar, Atishi and Manish Sisodia claimed that ED was “spreading fake news” on the eve of the Assembly elections. They said a copy of the permission should be given to them if such an order has been passed. “If LG sir has given permission to prosecute Arvind Kejriwal ji, then what is the problem for ED in making the copy of the approval public? This news is being spread only to mislead people and distract them from the issues. BJP should stop these conspiracies. Tell the truth,” senior AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Atishi said in a post on social media platform X.
Calling it a bid to divert attention from the issue of the alleged insult to BR Ambedkar, former Delhi minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia asked the ED to show the copy of the permission. “If the Lt Governor has given permission to prosecute Arvind Kejriwal, then why is the ED not showing the copy of that permission? It is clear that this news is false and misleading. Stop making false promises to divert attention from the issue of insult to Baba Saheb,” Sisodia said.
AAP’s chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar also asked the ED to show the copy of the sanction granted by the Lt Governor. “LG Saxena has not given any sanction to the ED to prosecute Kejriwal. This is false news. If sanction has been given to the ED, then show its copy,” Kakkar said.
The money laundering case stems from a CBI case lodged after Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a probe into the alleged irregularities in the implementation of the excise policy. According to the CBI and the ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours were extended to the licence holders.
The Delhi government implemented the policy on November 17, 2021, and scrapped it by the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption.
The sanction to the ED comes after months of investigations into the Delhi government’s excise policy, which has been at the centre of controversy and allegations of corruption. The Delhi High Court on Friday had granted the ED additional time to file its reply to the petition filed by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia. The petition challenges the trial court’s decision to take cognizance of the charge-sheets in the Delhi Excise Liquor Policy case.
The Supreme Court on November 6 had ruled that public servants cannot be prosecuted for money laundering without prior approval from the government, as required under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Earlier, prosecution sanction was not needed for charge-sheets (prosecution complaints) filed by the ED against public servants. It was mandated for other investigative agencies, like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and state police.
Mr Kejriwal was arrested by the ED and the CBI on March 21 and June 26, respectively, in the money laundering and corruption cases stemming from the alleged excise policy scam. He has been granted bail by the Supreme Court in both the cases.
In November, Kejriwal approached the Delhi High Court seeking to quash a trial court’s order taking cognisance of the ED’s seventh supplementary charge sheet in the case. In his plea, Mr Kejriwal argued that cognisance of the charge-sheet was taken by the court in the absence of the required sanction for his prosecution as he was a public servant when the alleged offence was committed. The ED had sought time to gather information to reply to the petition.
The trial court had taken cognisance of the charge sheet on July 9, noting that there was sufficient material on record to proceed against Kejriwal. The ED had filed a 200-page charge sheet naming Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as accused.