Arvind Kejriwal’s secretary, AAP Rajya Sabha member among party leaders raided
NEW DELHI,FEB 6 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday conducted searches at the premises of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s personal secretary, AAP Rajya Sabha MP ND Gupta and some people connected to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in a money laundering case.
As many as 12 premises in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) were being covered as part of the raids.
The locations of Bibhav Kumar, Kejriwal’s personal secretary, and former Delhi Jal Board (DJB) member Shalabh Kumar, apart from some others, were being covered by officials of the probe agency. Apart from Bibhav and Shalabh, ED officials conducted raids at the residence of ND Gupta, who is also the party’s treasurer.
The ED’s action came days after Kejriwal skipped the fifth summons issued by the probe agency to appear for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.
WHAT IS THE MONEY LAUNDERING CASE?
The money laundering case pertains to the alleged irregularities in the tendering process of the DJB.
The ED is investigating the alleged irregularities in the DJB’s tendering process based on two cases — an FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi government.
The CBI FIR alleged that officials of the DJB gave “undue advantage” to a firm while awarding it the tender for the supply, installation, testing and commissioning of electromagnetic flow metres.
It was alleged that the company was awarded illegal contracts worth Rs 38 crore even though it did not meet the technical eligibility criteria and obtained the bid by submitting forged documents.
The FIR alleged that Jagdish Kumar Arora, the then Chief Engineer of DJB, awarded contracts in DJB to NKG Infrastructure Limited for Rs 38 crore, even though the company did not meet the technical eligibility criteria.
On January 31, the ED arrested Arora and DJB contractor Anil Kumar Aggarwal under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 in the DJB corruption case.
According to the probe agency, Arora was aware of the fact that the company did not meet the technical eligibility criteria for sanctioning the tender for Supply, Installation, Testing and Commissioning (SITC) of Electromagnetic flow metres.
The NKG Infrastructure Ltd subcontracted the work to Integral Screws Ltd, a proprietorship firm of Anil Kumar Aggarwal.
On receipt of funds, Aggarwal allegedly transferred the bribe amount of approximately Rs 3 crore to Arora through cash and bank accounts, the ED alleged.
Investigations also revealed that the bank accounts of the aides of Arora and their relatives were used to transfer the bribe amounts. An aide of Arora also received a bribe in the form of cash.
The ED conducted searches on July 24 and November 17 last year in the case and seized several incriminating documents and evidence.
-PTI
