Searches at Delhi Minister’s home, 11 other premises, in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting searches at Delhi cabinet minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raaj Kumar Anand’s residence in a money laundering case.

The raids are underway at 12 premises at different locations across Delhi in connection with the case. The searches were initiated based on the prosecution complaint filed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) alleging false declarations on imports for customs evasion of more than Rs 7 crore and international hawala transactions.

The court has taken cognisance of the complaint.

Anand, 57, is an MLA from Patel Nagar and the Minister for Social Welfare and SC/ST Welfare, among others, in the AAP-led Delhi government.

The raids at Anand’s home come amid Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal skipping today’s ED summons in the liquor policy scam. Kejriwal’s colleague and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is already behind bars in the same case. Another AAP leader and former Delhi minister Sanjay Singh is also in jail in the liquor policy case.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal on Thursday responded to the ED summons calling it “illegal” and “politically motivated”. “The notice (ED summons) sent at the behest of the BJP. It was sent so that I could not campaign in four states,” the Delhi Chief Minister’s notice to the probe agency said.

Kejriwal is scheduled for an electoral campaign in Madhya Pradesh’s Singhrauli district today.

Six months before, Kejriwal was questioned for around nine hours by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Delhi liquor policy scam. Both the CBI and ED are investigating the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy case for 2021-22 over allegations that the AAP favoured certain dealers.

On Wednesday (November 1), AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha claimed the BJP-led central government is “planning to arrest” Kejriwal, fearing defeat in all seven seats of Delhi in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “Delhi has 7 Lok Sabha seats. We all know that if the INDIA bloc contests the Lok Sabha elections, BJP is going to lose all seven seats of Delhi. This has made the ruling party so fearful that it is now planning to arrest the opposition leader and first on the list is Arvind Kejriwal,” he said during a press conference.