Posted by New Delhi: Appearing before the court of Special Judge Kaveri Baweja at Rouse Avenue that was hearing the matter of ED custody of Shri Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi Chief Minister told the court how he has been trapped by the Enforcement Directorate in the so-called liquor scam to finish the Aam Aadmi Party.
After getting permission from the court, he in person gave his verbal statement, challenging his arrest.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said, “This case has been going on for the last 1.75 years. On August 17, 2022 CBI filed a case and on August 22, 2022 ECIR of Enforcement Directorate was filed. And now, I have been arrested. Neither any court has pronounced me guilty, neither any case has been filed against me in a court of law, nor any charges have been framed.”
“The CBI has filed 31,000 pages in this case in the court, and has examined 294 witnesses so far. The ED has investigated 162 people and filed 25000 page so far. By combining all these documents and reports, why have I been arrested? My name figures only in 4 statements,” he said, presenting his case before the court.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said, “C. Arvind was Manish Sisodia’s secretary. He has given a statement that one day in my presence at my house, Manish Sisodia handed over some excise related documents to him. That’s it. He has not alleged that any money was given in my presence. He has only stated that Manish Sisodia gave some documents to him. Several MLAs, ministers, dignitaries come with their secretaries to my house, they do side-talks, handover documents to each other. How do I know who is giving whom and what? Is this statement sufficient a reason to arrest the sitting chief minister.”
Giving details of the second statement in which his name appears, Shri Arvind Kejriwal said, “Magunta Srinivas Reddy (MSR), an MP from Jagan Reddy’s party, came to my office at 4.30 pm on March 16, 2021. He had sent an e-mail to my office that he is an MP and wanted to meet me. My office gave him an appointment to meet me after 10 days. He came over and said he wants to open his family’s charitable trust in Delhi. I told him that land does not come under us, it comes under Lieutenant Governor (LG). You give me the letter and I will forward it to the LG.”
Shri Arvind Kejriwal further said that on September 16, 2022, his (Magunta Srinivas Reddy house) was raided. “He was asked whether he met Arvind Kejriwal, he said he did. He said that he had met Arvind Kejriwal to seek land for his family’s trust. ED was not happy with his statement. After five months, his son was arrested on February 10 (2023). Even after his son’s arrest, he stuck to his statement.”
“When the son remained arrested for five months, the father changed his statement. He changed his statement on July 16 and his son was released on July 18. After that no statement is issued by him. That’s it. Statements after statements were being issued until he gave a statement against me. As soon as he gave a statement against me, there was no further statement from him, his son got released and on October 3, the apology was issued. Mission accomplished. That means the only mission of the ED was to get me trapped,” said Shri Arvind Kejriwal.
The Delhi Chief Minister submitted before the court that there are three statements under section 50. All of them hold the same importance in the eyes of the law. Did they try to find out why one statement was given attention and the other two were ignored? “Why the only statement that is against Kejriwal has been included in the 25,000 pages ED report and the other two statements were not considered. Why? All the three statements should have been brought to the notice of the court, so that the court could decide the truth in the case,” he said.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said the third statement is of his Raghav Magunta. “When his house was raided on September 16, Raghav Magunta’s statement was taken by ED. He says whatever his father had said. He (Raghav) is arrested on February 10 and after that he gives five statements and in all five statements, he says the same thing that he had said earlier (prior to his arrest). He remained in jail for five months and after that when his father changed his statement on July 16, Raghav was released on July 18. So out of his 7 statements, six are not against me and as soon as he gives a statement against me, there is no further statement from him. He was released from jail. These six statements that are not against me are not brought on record,” stated the Delhi Chief Minister.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said the fourth statement is regarding Sarath Chandra Reddy. “In his initial statements on 16th September and 9th November, he stated nothing against me. He was then arrested on 10th November 2022. In his nine statements post his arrest, he did not give any testimony against me. After he was kept in the jail for six months, he finally succumbed and gave another statement on 25th April 2023. In this statement, the only thing he said was that he had gone to meet the CM along with Vijay Nair. The CM was in a rush so he told me to stay in touch with Vijay Nair, he is a good man.”
“I want to ask if these four statements were enough to arrest a sitting Chief Minister?,” Shri Arvind Kejriwal enquired.
The Delhi Chief Minister said another thing I want to ask is about the 30,000 pages filed in the court. “Apart from this, there are more than 1 lakh pages in the ED office which can prove our innocence, and these evidences were not produced in the court by the ED. The next thing I want to ask is where has the money gone in this allegedly liquor policy scam? We (AAP) have been accused of recovering bribes worth ₹100 crore from the so-called ‘South Lobby’ in formulating the alleged liquor policy scam,” he said.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal highlighted the order by Justice Sanjiv Khanna (Page number 22, Para 12), “The assertion in the complaint filed by ED that kickback of ₹100 crore was actually paid by the Liquor group is a matter of debate. It means it is not proved, it means it is disputed, it means it is controversial, it means there is no evidence for it. There is no evidence to their claims that we have taken ₹100 crore. The actual liquor excise policy scam started after the beginning of the ED investigation. The ED investigation had two main motives, first was to crush the Aam Aadmi Party and they wanted to form a smokescreen in front of the nation to declare the AAP as corrupt, and spread the word that the Aam Aadmi Party was involved in a liquor scam. The second objective of the ED was to run an extortion racket (in the name of Electoral Bond) behind it, through which they are collecting money.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said I am giving you evidences. “Sarath Chandra Reddy was granted bail on two conditions. First, he gave testimony against me, and second, he gave donations amounting to ₹55 crore to the BJP post his arrest. He has clearly bought his bail. The money has been transferred to BJP accounts and the money trail has been clearly established,” he added.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal concluded that this was the basic purpose of the entire investigation. “To crush the Aam Aadmi Party, to create a smokescreen and do extortion behind it.”
(This is a press release)