New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a second cash laundering case linked to alleged irregularities within the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), official sources stated Sunday.
He has been requested to depose earlier than the central company at its workplace at A P J Abdul Kalam Road on March 18 and file his assertion below the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources stated.
This is the second case registered below the anti-money laundering regulation during which the 55-year-old politician, additionally the nationwide convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has been summoned.
He is already dealing with summons for questioning within the Delhi excise coverage linked cash laundering case. Kejriwal has skipped eight summons on this case until now, terming them unlawful. A contemporary and ninth such discover within the excise coverage case stipulates him to seem earlier than the ED investigating officer on March 21.
Reacting to the summons within the second case, Delhi minister Atishi informed reporters on Sunday that, “Nobody knows what this DJB case is about. This seems to be a backup plan to arrest Kejriwal anyhow and stop him from campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls”.
The ED, within the DJB case, has alleged that bribe cash generated from corruption in a contract issued by this Delhi authorities division was “passed on” as election funds to the AAP that at the moment guidelines the nationwide capital.
The ED raided the premises of Kejriwal’s private assistant Bibhav Kumar, AAP Rajya Sabha MP N D Gupta, former DJB member Shalabh Kumar, chartered accountant Pankaj Mangal and a few others as a part of this investigation in February.
A CBI FIR which alleges that former chief engineer of DJB Jagdish Kumar Arora awarded a contract of the DJB to an organization NKG Infrastructure Ltd for a complete value of Rs 38 crore although the corporate “did not meet” the technical eligibility standards, is the idea of the ED case.
The ED arrested Arora and a contractor named Anil Kumar Aggarwal on this case on January 31.
NKG Infrastructure Ltd obtained the bid by submitting “forged” paperwork and Arora “was aware of the fact that the company does not meet the technical eligibility,” the company claimed.
An ED assertion alleged that Arora “received” bribe in money and in financial institution accounts after awarding the contract to NKG Infrastructure Ltd. And that he “passed on” this cash to varied individuals managing the affairs at DJB, together with “persons connected with AAP”.
“Bribe amounts were also passed on as election funds to AAP,” it claimed.
This is the second case the place the federal company has charged the AAP with taking kickbacks. It has claimed that bribe cash from the scrapped excise coverage of 2021-22 was utilized by the Arvind Kejriwal-led celebration for campaigning in Goa meeting elections.
The company stated that the DJB contract was awarded at “highly inflated rates” in order that the bribes may very well be collected from the contractors.
“As against the contract value of Rs 38 crore, only about Rs 17 crore was spent towards the contract and the remaining amounts were siphoned off in guise of various fake expenses.” “Such fake expenses were booked for bribes and election funds,” the ED claimed.
Delhi minister Atishi had claimed in a press briefing after the raids that the officers of the company simply sat in the lounge of Bibhav Kumar and took with them solely two Gmail account downloads and three household telephones.
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