Delhi excise policy case: In his defence in court, Kejriwal cites poll bond payments to BJP by approver

The ED sought his custody for seven more days but the court granted only four days — the remand will end April 1.

Making his submission, Kejriwal targeted the BJP: “Sarath Reddy (P Sarath Chandra Reddy, director of Aurobindo Pharma and co-accused-turned-approver in the case) contributed Rs 55 crore to the BJP. He bought his bail… The money trail is clearly established here.” He also asked that the electoral bonds be submitted in court to show that Rs 55 crore was donated to the BJP by Reddy.

Reading four statements of witnesses and co-accused who mentioned his name, Kejriwal said he was not opposing the ED remand application. “I am ready to join the investigation,” he said.

He was interrupted multiple times by Additional Solicitor General S V Raju who appeared for ED. Following requests to let him speak, the Judge granted permission for a few minutes.

Stating that there were over 51,000 pages submitted in court by both the CBI and the ED in their respective cases in the Delhi excise policy matter, Kejriwal, while reading out the four witness statements mentioning him, asked the court whether these were enough to arrest a sitting Chief Minister.

The ED opposed Kejriwal’s arguments, calling them “unnecessary political statements” which were irrelevant and not connected to the case. “He is playing to the gallery… How does he know how many documents are with ED?” Raju said.

The four names the CM took were of former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia’s secretary C Arvind, YSRCP MP Magunta S Reddy, his son Raghav Magunta, and co-accused-turned-approver P Sarath Chandra Reddy.

Reading Magunta S. Reddy’s statements, the CM said Reddy had come to meet him to ask for land for a charitable trust. “I told him that land is under the L-G (Lt Governor), not under us,” he told the court.

He said a few months later, Raghav Reddy (Magunta’s son) was arrested. “Phir baap toot gaye (then the father gave in). He changed his statements and gave statements against me. Two days later, his son was released,” he said.

Reading Raghav Magunta’s statements, the CM said seven of his statements were recorded, of which six were not against him. “Only one statement was against me. As soon as he made a statement against me, he was let go,” he said.

He also claimed that nine of P Sarath Chandra Reddy’s statements were not against him. “…the bribes (in the excise policy case) are disputed,” Kejriwal said, reading Supreme Court Justice Sanjiv Khanna’s remarks during the bail hearing of Sisodia.

Raju said the ED needed Kejriwal’s custody for seven more days as digital data, which had been extracted, needed to be examined. “All these points were raised before the Delhi High Court also. The AAP has received this amount for the Goa elections… We have witnesses who say this openly,” Raju said.

He said there can’t be different standards for a CM. “The money that they are saying has come to the BJP has got nothing to do with the liquor scam,” he said, adding that there was material evidence to show that Kejriwal demanded a Rs 100-crore payback.

Reading from the remand papers of the ED, Senior Advocate Ramesh Gupta, representing Kejriwal, said the CM cannot be remanded for not sharing his phone password.

“The accused has the right not to give his password. I can’t be remanded just for the password of my phone,” he said.

Urging the court to monitor the investigation, Gupta also said that the fact that an approver gave the BJP Rs 55 crore was very relevant to the case.

In its submissions to the court, the ED said Kejriwal was “giving evasive replies” during custodial interrogation and that he had been confronted with the other accused in the case.

“During the ED custody period, C. Arvind, PS to then Dy CM Manish Sisodia, who was handed the draft GoM report 2021-22 at the residence of Arvind Kejriwal and in his presence, was confronted with him,” the agency said.

It said it had recorded the statement of an AAP candidate for the Goa Assembly elections in 2022 who had revealed that his election expenditure – for rallies/events/public hoardings – was “taken care by AAP Office Delhi” “through their associates”.

The ED said data from a mobile phone belonging to Kejriwal’s wife Sunita had been extracted and was being analysed but data from four other digital devices the agency had seized were yet to be extracted because Kejriwal had “sought time in providing password/login credentials after consulting his lawyers.”

According to the ED, it was awaiting documents and details including a visitor register from his offices. It said summons had been issued to senior excise officials in Punjab who were allegedly involved in “the arm-twisting of certain (liquor) wholesalers of Delhi” when they “refused to pay the demanded bribes in Delhi”.

AAP ministers Gopal Rai, Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Kailash Gahlot and Kejriwal’s wife Sunita were among those seated in the courtroom.