Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena has authorised the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to bring charges against AAP Chief and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy issue ahead of the 2025 Delhi Assembly Elections. The Enforcement Directorate requested authorisation to sanction Arvind Kejriwal’s prosecution on December 5.
Following months of investigations into the excise policy of the Delhi government, which has been the subject of controversy and accusations of corruption, this action was taken. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) was given further time by the Delhi High Court on Friday to respond to the petition that Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia had filed. The trial court’s choice to consider the chargesheets in the Delhi Excise Liquor Policy case is contested in the petition.
The bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri has set a hearing date of February 5 for the case. Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal, the leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party, recently appealed the trial court’s order to accept the Enforcement Directorate’s chargesheet against them in the purported excise policy scam in a notice issued by the Delhi High Court.
In the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charges pertaining to the now-scrapped excise policy, Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia are currently free on bail. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) claims that the Excise Policy was purposefully created with gaps to favour AAP leaders and encourage the establishment of cartels. AAP leaders were charged by the ED of accepting payments from spirits companies in return for special treatment, such as licence fee waivers, discounts and assistance during the Covid-19 disruptions.
The “scam” allegedly entailed giving wholesale spirits distribution rights to private companies with a fixed 12% margin in exchange for a 6% fee, according to the ED. AAP leaders were also charged with influencing the results of the early 2022 elections in Punjab and Goa.
