ED’s reply to Kejriwal’s plea: Multiple routes used for transferring money to Goa identified

New Delhi:  In its reply filed in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday to a plea challenging Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest in the excise policy case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said that on examining the money trail backward, multiple routes were identified through which the money was transferred.

“The statements of Ashok Patel, Kiran Bhai Patel, and Jagdish Sharma revealed that the money which was transferred to Goa came through multiple routes – Rs 12 crore (approx) from Ashok Chandu Bhai of Asheel Corporation (Angadiya), Rs 7.1 crore from Devang Solanki of KS Enterprise (Angadiya), Rs 16 crore from Kirti Amba Lal (Angadiya), Rs 7.5 crore from Neelkanth (Angadiya), and Rs 2 crore from Ma Ambey (Angadiya),” the ED affidavit read.

The ED claimed that the statements of the relevant persons belonging to these Angadiya firms corroborated the same.

“Further, they have also revealed the source of these funds. Ashok Chandu Bhai received funds of Rs 12 crore (approx) from Rajesh Joshi and Damodar Prasad Sharma, an employee of Chariot Productions Media Private Limited,” it stated.

Devang Solanki also revealed that he had received Rs 7.1 crore from a person named Arvind Singh.

“At the time of these transfers, Arvind Singh was the production controller-cum-commercial head in India Ahead news channel of Gautam Mootha, co-owned by Abhishek Boinpally of the South Group. As per the CDR of Arvind Singh, it is clear that he was in touch with Solanki, Chanpreet Singh, and Prince Kumar,” the ED stated in the affidavit.

The agency also said that the relevant persons — Kirti Amba Lal (Angadiya), Neelkanth (Angadiya), and Ma Ambey (Angadiya) — have revealed that they had received money from Chandan Kumar Tripathi, who then confirmed that a total amount of Rs 25.5 crore was given to him by two persons named Ashish Mathur and Tara Singh for onward transfer to Goa.

“Ashish Mathur has call logs with Chandan on the relevant dates. During the investigation, it was found that Ashish Mathur and Tara Singh were associates/employees of Vinod Chauban. Further, the CDR of Vinod Chauhan revealed that he was in touch with Ashok Kaushik, the then private secretary of (BRS MLC) K. Kavitha, a member of the South Group,” the ED said.

The ED also said that Kaushik’s CDR revealed that he was in regular touch with the other members of the South Group, including Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Pillai, and Sameer Mahandru of Indo Spirits.

“On examination, Ashok Kaushik revealed that in 2020, he came in contact with Boinpally who got him a job with the India Ahead mews channel and during the period from June 2021 till August 2021, he collected two heavy bags containing cash from Dinesh Arora’s office on Boinpally’s directions and delivered them to Vinod Chauhan. On another occasion, he collected two bags containing cash from an address near Todapur, Narayana, New Delhi, and delivered the same to Vinod Chauhan,” the ED claimed.

The ED has termed Chief Minister Kejriwal the “kingpin and the key conspirator” of the alleged excise policy scam in collusion with other ministers of the Delhi government, AAP leaders, and other persons.

The ED arrested Kejriwal on March 21 after questioning him for over two hours at his official residence in Delhi.

The ED said that during custodial interrogation, Kejriwal was also shown the evidence of hawala transfers to the tune of Rs 45 crore (approx) which is corroborated with CDR locations, call records, data seized from hawala firm in Goa, proof of payments being made in part cash and part bill, and WhatsApp messages showing this arrangement.

“He (Kejriwal) was also shown multiple statements of witnesses, who worked on the AAP campaign in Goa and received cash from a person named Chanpreet Singh, who was working for the AAP in Goa,” the ED said.

“This person (Chanpreet Singh) collected and facilitated the collection of Rs 45 crore cash through the hawala channel and also received Rs 2,20,340 directly in his bank account from the AAP. Even after showing all the above-mentioned evidence, the arrestee (Kejriwal) claimed unawareness even though the beneficiary of these funds is the AAP, which is headed by the arrestee,” it added.

–IANS