ED will file new chargesheet, likely to name AAP as an accused
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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate will file a ‘prosecution complaint’ or supplementary chargesheet against Arvind Kejriwal as well as the Aam Aadmi Party before May 15, The Indian Express reported.
The filing will meet the 60-day deadline to do so since the arrest of K Kavitha, Telangana MLC and co-accused in the case on March 15.
In addition to those who were named in the previous six charge sheets, the new one, which is reportedly in the ‘final drafting stage’, is expected to name “four or five” accused.
The latest chargesheet will include, besides Kejriwal and Kavitha, the Goa-based political worker, Chanpreet Singh who, arrested on April 15, has been accused of managing Aam Aadmi Party’s funds for the Goa Assembly polls.
An official was quoted as saying that one or two more persons accused of having involved in hawala transactions after AAP allegedly received kickbacks will possibly be included in the chargesheet.
The ED reportedly said its move to include AAP as an accused in the case received ‘sound legal advice to back it’.
It is reported that Additional Solicitor General S V Raju acknowledged its possibility during proceedings in the Supreme Court regarding granting bail to AAP leader Manish Sisodia.
“We (the ED) are contemplating making the Aam Aadmi Party an accused invoking Section 70 (of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act) to probe it additionally with respect to vicarious liability,” the Additional Solicitor General told the court on October 16, 2023.
However, Senior Supreme Court lawyer Abhishek Singhvi, who appeared for both Kejriwal and Sisodia, claimed that a political party cannot be treated as a ‘company’ under PMLA’s Section 70, the report said.
Reacting to the move Supreme Court lawyer and former Law Minister Kapil Sibal called it ‘an inappropriate move’, adding that “A political party is a statutory body and a composition of people. This would be an inappropriate move and nothing will come out of it. Such a move smacks of malice and will be an act of desperation. It is nothing but an attempt to malign and an absolute misuse of the provisions of Section 70 of the PMLA.”