The Delhi High Court had said a month earlier that political parties might face charges of money laundering. On Tuesday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) declared that it will include the Aam Aadmi Party as an accused in a case related to the scandal involving the Delhi excise policy.
The ED lawyer objected to prominent AAP leader and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s bail request, telling Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma that “AAP is going to be made a co-accused in the next prosecution complaint (chargesheet) to be filed in the case.”
Regarding Sisodia’s bail requests in money laundering and corruption charges filed with the ED and CBI, respectively, Justice Sharma postponed making a decision. It’s interesting to note that Justice Sharma decided last month that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act permits prosecution of political parties (PMLA).
On April 9, Justice Sharma dismissed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea contesting his ED detention, stating that the PMLA’s definition of “company” and the Representation of Peoples Act’s definition of “political party” were the same. Following a review of the two definitions, Justice Sharma said, “This court is of the judgment that a political party implies a ‘association or group of persons’ as defined by Section 2(f) of the Representation of Peoples Act. A “association of individuals” is sometimes referred to as a “company” under Explanation 1 of Section 70 of the PMLA.
Since Kejriwal was the national convener of the AAP, which was accused of using the profits of the crime to influence the 2022 Goa Assembly elections, the HC had upheld his detention.
The ED counsel’s remarks, which claimed that the accused were attempting in concert to postpone the filing of charges in the case, were taken up by the CBI on Tuesday. Senior attorney Mohit Mathur refuted such accusation on behalf of Sisodia.
Nevertheless, ED counsel said, “Accused No. 31 comes forward and claims that I have only evaluated 100 papers in the previous two months, and 1,600 out of 1,700 documents still need to be scrutinized. This party (AAP), which will also be named as an accused in the next prosecution case, is represented by Accused No. 31.
In relation to claimed inconsistencies in the creation and execution of the Delhi excise policy for 2021–2022, Sisodia has appealed the Delhi Special Court’s April 30 ruling denying his bail requests in corruption and money laundering allegations.