Porni Banerjee | ১০ মে ২০২৪ ১৩ : ২৯

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will name Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as an ‘accused’ in a fresh chargesheet in the money laundering case in connection with the Delhi liquor policy scam. For the first time in the history of Indian politics, a national-level party will be labelled as accused in a corruption case.

Apart from the party, the central probe agency will also name Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as the accused for first time in the chargesheet. He is currently imprisoned in the capital’s Tihar Jail linked to the corruption case.

The ED will file the chargesheet after the top court’s hearing on interim bail for Kejriwal is over. If the hearing continues throughout the day today, the agency will file the chargesheet tomorrow, as per media reports.

Meanwhile, the agency will also name Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief K Kavitha and some others as accused in the chargesheet. MLC and daughter of ex-Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, K Kavitha was taken into custody from Hyderabad on March 15.

If filed, this will be the seventh chargesheet by the ED in the liquor policy scam. The agency has arrested 18 people so far, including former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh. The latter was however, granted bail last month.

Kejriwal is called the “kingpin” and “key conspirator” in the Delhi excise scam by the probe agency. It has also alleged before a Delhi court that Rs 45 crores of the kickbacks received by AAP was used by the party during campaigning in the 2022 Goa Assembly elections.