New Delhi: A special court on Thursday granted bail to “middleman” Vinod Chauhan in Delhi Excise Policy-linked money laundering case.
Chauhan, who was the 18th person arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering case, has been accused of transferring alleged kickbacks received from the “south group” to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for its Goa assembly election campaign.
Court granted Chauhan bail on a personal bond of Rs 10 lakh
Special Judge Kaveri Baweja granted bail to Chauhan, who was arrested by the ED in May, on a personal bond of Rs 10 lakh.
The ED filed a supplementary charge sheet against Chauhan in the money laundering case on June 28.
Several high-profile politicians, including Kejriwal, were arrested by ED in money laundering case
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha, former AAP communications in-charge Vijay Nair are among the high-profile politicians arrested by the ED in the excise policy-linked money laundering case. Besides them, several liquor businessmen and others were also arrested in the case.
ED’s money laundering case stems from a CBI case
ED’s money laundering case stems from a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-defunct 2021-22 Delhi Excise Policy. Both the central agencies have filed charge sheet in the corruption and money laundering case before a special court in the national capital.
What are the allegations?
The central agencies have alleged that the 2021-22 Delhi Excise Policy was tweaked to extend undue favours to private liquor businessmen in exchange of kickbacks. As per the ED, Rs 100 crore kickbacks was given by the “south group”, which comprised of Kavitha, Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, his son Raghav Magunta, businessman Sarath Chandra Reddy and others, to the AAP in connection with the excise policy and Rs 45 crore was used by the AAP for its Goa assembly campaign.