ED nabs man who 'managed' AAP's Goa poll funds, party claims excise probe politically motivated

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Chanpreet Singh who allegedly managed cash funds for AAPs campaign in the 2022 Goa Assembly polls in connection with the Delhi excise policylinked money laundering case official sources said on MondayThe Aam Aadmi Party alleged the ED was carrying out a politically motivated probe and it was unable to recover a single rupee or find evidence in the matterSingh was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA on April 12 and was produced before a special court here the next day the sources saidHe has been sent to ED custody till April 18 by the court they saidThis is the 17th arrest in the case by the ED Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal his party colleague and former deputy CM Manish Sisodia BRS leader K Kavitha and a number of liquor businessmen and others have been arrested earlier by the federal agencySingh was earlier arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation too in the same case The money laundering case stems from the CBI FIRThe ED has informed the court through its official documents that Chanpreet Singh managed cash payments for the campaign of the AAP during the 2022 Goa elections and had a relationship with the political outfit that rules Delhi currentlyIt has been alleged by the agency that the South Group comprising Kavitha TDP candidate from Ongole Lok Sabha seat Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy his son Raghav Magunta businessman Sarath Chandra Reddy and others paid Rs 100 crore bribe to the AAP for obtaining a prime position in the Delhi liquor market as part of the nowscrapped excise policy for 202122Out of these alleged kickbacks the ED has claimed Rs 45 crore was used by the AAP to fund its Goa election campaignThe ED has claimed that cash payments were made to survey workers area managers assembly managers and others in Goa who were engaged in election campaign activities of the AAP and these people told the agency that this was managed by a person named Chanpreet SinghIt also said that an employee of an Angadia firm which allegedly moved cash funds illegally had admitted to disbursing huge amounts of cash in Goa to some people including Singh who used to work for Chariot Productions Media Pvt LtdChariot Productions was the company engaged by the AAP for its Goa poll campaign The companys director Rajesh Joshi was arrested in the case by the ED last yearThe ED had alleged that Singh collected more than Rs 17 crore Rs 173814500 in total in over 18 instances from the Angadia company employee between August 2021January 2022 and this was also corroborated by CDR call data records of mobile phone analysisIt said that Singh received a salary from the Aam Aadmi Party in February 2022 and also from a company called Wizspk Communications and PR Ltd which was engaged by the Delhi governmentMoreover the ED claimed that he had also received funds from the OML Only Much Louder events management company of arrested AAP communications incharge Vijay Nair and these facts are prima facie reflective of his relationship with the Aam Aadmi PartyIn a statement the AAP said the entire country knows the real Delhi liquor scam took place after ED started its investigation and arrested scam kingpin Sarath Reddy who later transferred Rs 55 crore of his proceeds of crime to BJP via electoral bondsEven after two years of investigation and over 500 raids not a single rupee or evidence has been recovered from AAP leaders it saidThe ED is running a politically motivated investigation and making its case solely based on statements of approvers many of whom like Sarath Reddy have a direct connection with the BJP the party allegedIn a related development Kejriwal did not get any interim relief on Monday from the Supreme Court which sought a response from the ED by April 24 on his plea challenging his arrest in the money laundering caseThe excise case pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi governments excise policy for 202122 which was later scrappedDelhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the liquor policy Subsequently the ED registered a case under the PMLAThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever