Goemkarponn desk
NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s stay in Goa was paid for through hawala money and we have evidence of it, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told the Rouse Avenue Court on Wednesday. The CBI, which arrested Kejriwal this morning, said it needed his custody to confront him with both witnesses and documents.
“We need to confront him with documents that we have. We are not asking him to admit to something. What is non-cooperation? When you deny simple knowledge,” DP Singh, appearing for the CBI, said during the hearing.
The CBI lawyer further said: “When we asked – did you go to Goa and who paid for your stay? He says he doesn’t remember. His stay was paid for through hawala money. We have the entire chain. Who did what, how it happened. We have everything. He goes there 11 times and says I have no recollection. This did not happened 10 years back.”
The CBI lawyer alleged that Delhi’s excise policy was tweaked to favour the ‘South Group’. “We have evidence to show that the South Group said what the policy should be like,” Singh said. He suggested that the new policy was formulated despite the excise commissioner’s report the liquor business in Delhi should not be privatised. “Then they (the government) asked for public comments (on the policy) and those comments were fabricated. We have evidence to show.”
Singh also claimed that the officers who refused to sign on the policy were changed. “And that noting on the file is missing. When the new officer came, he did the needful,” he said. The CBI counsel said the comments from two former Chief Justice of India and by Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi were also sought. The officer included the comments elicited by the government, he said.
The counsel further said that the South Group came to Delhi during Covid by private plane when no planes were operating. “The report prepared at the instance of South Group was taken to the government and that report became the policy itself.”
When the court asked what was the material against Kejriwal, Singh said the Delhi chief minister’s first meeting with Magunta, who is now an MP, was on March 16. “Vijay Nair was a close associate of Kejriwal. Magunta Srinivas Reddy is the MP and a big player in the South Group. He meeting Kejriwal at the Delhi secretariat and asks him to provide support in the liquor business. Kejriwal assured him of support in the excise policy case and asked him to provide monetary funds to AAP.”
When the court asked what was the evidence of that, the CBI lawyer said Magunta Srinivas Reddy was its witness. “He was asked to meet K Kavitha.”
On March 19, K Kavitha contacted Magunta Reddy and asked for a meeting with him, Singh said. According to the CBI, Kejriwal asked Reddy to meet Kavitha. “He goes and meets her. K Kavitha demanded for Rs 15 crore. All this is done with the knowledge and connivance of the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal,” the CBI told the court.
The CBI said it needed Kejriwal’s custodial interrogation as he was not even recognising that Vijay Nair was working under him. “He says he was working under Atishi Marlena and Saurab Bharjdwaj. He pushed the entire onus on Manish Sisodia and said he has no idea about the excise policy,” the CBI told the court.
Earlier this month, the ED, in its chargesheet, said that Kavitha allegedly conspired with the members of the ‘South Group’ and AAP leaders to pay kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore and receive undue benefits. The ED has also alleged that part of Rs 100 crore money was used by the AAP in the Goa elections.
