There could be more trouble in store for chief minister Arvind Kejriwal with Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) likely to expedite action against him, sources said on Friday.
Once Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) remand gets over, CBI may move court for Kejriwal’s custody as it’s probing the predicate offence under Prevention of Corruption Act in which it has arrested deputy CM Manish Sisodia and others, the sources added. A predicate offence is the original offence based on which ED files a complaint. In this case, ED’s investigation is that of money laundering.
CBI had also told a court this Monday that there could be some “high-profile arrests” in the liquor policy case and opposed Sisodia’s bail plea.
In April 2023, Kejriwal was questioned for nine hours by CBI in connection with their probe into the alleged corruption in the framing and implementation of the now-scrapped excise policy 2021-22. “Chief minister of Delhi was issued a notice under Section 160 of CrPC for his examination in this case and answering various questions pertaining to the alleged scam. He joined the investigation today and his statement has been recorded under 161 CrPC. The statement will be verified and collated with the available evidence,” a CBI spokesperson had said.
During questioning, CBI had sought clarifications on some disclosures by the arrested men in the case and whereabouts of a missing file. It also intended to know whether Kejriwal spoke with arrested liquor businessman Sameer Mahendru on FaceTime and asked him to follow the instructions of Vijay Nair, arrested communication in-charge of AAP.
The agency wanted to know if a draft policy was handed over to a Danics officer named C Arvind at Kejriwal’s residence, an official recalled. CBI also sought to verify certain details that were supposedly been retrieved from an iCloud account. After receiving a sanction from the Union home ministry, CBI had registered an FIR in the liquor policy case on Aug 17, 2022. In the first week of Sept, ED registered a case of money laundering based on CBI’s FIR.Besides the alleged liquor policy scam, CBI is also probing a case of alleged irregularities in Delhi Jal Board. That was the only department Kejriwal had held briefly. In July 2022, CBI had registered a case of corruption and conducted searches, which led to the recovery of around Rs 1.5 crore in cash, jewellery worth around Rs 1.2 crore, and fixed deposits worth Rs 69 lakh.