Arvind Kejriwal has been invited by the investigation agency to come into its office on Monday, March 18, so that it can record his statement.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday issued a second summons to Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal in a money-laundering case related to irregularities in Delhi Jal Board (DJB), hours after issuing the ninth summons in the liquor excise policy case in Delhi.
The AAP leader has been invited to come before the investigative body on Monday, March 18, at its office, so that it can record his statement in accordance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The inquiry agency is looking into two Delhi Jal Board contracts that have anomalies and norm violations. The organization was founded in 1998 and is in charge of providing clean drinking water to the nation’s capital. Additionally, it gathers and disposes of sewage from Delhi Cantonment and New Delhi Municipal Council regions.
The ED case originated from a corruption case that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed in July 2022. It stated that Jagdish Kumar Arora, the former engineer of DJB, had given a company called NKG Infrastructure Limited a ₹38 crore contract for the supply, installation, testing, and commissioning of electromagnetic flow meters, even though the company “did not meet” the technical eligibility requirements.It was said that the officials were in collusion with the officials of NBCC (India) Limited to provide preference to NKG Infrastructure Limited in exchange for a bribe. Anil Kumar Aggarwal, a contractor, and Arora were subsequently taken into custody by the Enforcement Department.
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In what way is the case related to AAP?
In its complaint, the ED stated that Arora “passed on” the bribe to other individuals overseeing DJB’s operations, including “persons connected with AAP,” and that he “received” the payment in cash and in bank accounts subsequent to granting the contract to NKG Infrastructure Ltd. The organization went on to claim that the DJB contract was given out at “highly inflated rates” in order to collect bribes from the contractors.
“As against the contract value of ₹38 crore, only about ₹17 crore was spent towards the contract and the remaining amounts were siphoned off in guise of various fake expenses,” claimed the statement.
Additionally, according to the ED, bribe money was “passed on” as election campaign money. As part of the investigation, the ED raided the homes of many people in February, including Bibhav Kumar, Kejriwal’s personal assistant, AAP Rajya Sabha MP N D Gupta, former DJB member Shalabh Kumar, chartered accountant Pankaj Mangal, and a few others.
How does the AAP respond?
Minister Atishi of Delhi responded to the summons by saying, “Nobody understands what this DJB issue is about. This appears to be a fallback strategy to arrest Kejriwal regardless and prevent him from running for the Lok Sabha elections.”
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