Excise policy case: Delhi court takes cognisance of chargesheet against Kejriwal

A Delhi court on Tuesday, 3 September took cognisance of a chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak and others in a corruption case related to the alleged excise scam.

Special Judge Kaveri Baweja said there was sufficient evidence against Kejriwal and the other accused to proceed against them.

The judge issued a production warrant for Kejriwal, who is lodged in judicial custody, and summoned Pathak on 11 September.

The CBI had filed a supplementary chargesheet against Kejriwal, Pathak, Vinod Chauhan, Ashish Mathur and Sarath Reddy a few weeks ago.

The CBI informed the court last month that it had obtained the requisite sanctions to prosecute Kejriwal and Pathak in the case.

The central probe agency has claimed that the money generated from the alleged excise scam was spent according to the wishes of Kejriwal, who promised Rs 90 lakh to each candidate of his party in the 2022 Goa assembly elections.

The CBI had made the submission while urging the court to take cognisance of the chargesheet.

It claimed that Vijay Nair, a co-accused and former AAP communication in-charge, was appointed by Kejriwal to negotiate a deal with the 'South Group’ comprising BRS leader K Kavitha, Raghav Magunta, Arun Pillai, Butchibabu Gorantla, P Sarath Reddy, Abhishek Boinpally and Benoy Babu. All of them are co-accused in the case.

According to the CBI, the 'South Group' is a cartel of businessmen and politicians who gave kickbacks of Rs 100 crore to Delhi's ruling AAP in return for liquor licences and modifying the now-scrapped excise policy to benefit them.

The CBI claimed that Pathak was appointed as the party in-charge for the Goa elections and the money received through kickbacks was spent on his instructions. All transactions involving election expenses were made in cash, it alleged.