Arvind Kejriwal summoned by ED in 2nd money laundering case linked to Delhi Jal Board, AAP reacts

Arvind Kejriwal has been asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate at its Delhi office on March 18.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in a second money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). The agency has asked Arvind Kejriwal to appear before it at its Delhi office on Monday, March 18, and record his statement under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, news agency PTI reported.

This is the second case registered under the anti-money laundering law in which the ED has summoned Arvind Kejriwal.

Delhi minister Atishi termed the summons in the new case as ED's “backup plan” to arrest Kejriwal. “Nobody knows what this DJB case is about. This seems to be a backup plan to arrest Kejriwal anyhow and stop him from campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls,” Atishi said.

The Delhi chief minister is already facing summons for questioning a money laundering case linked with the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy. Kejriwal has so far skipped eight summons in this case till now, terming them “illegal”.

Earlier on Sunday, the ED issued the ninth summons in the case to him, asking him to appear before it on March 21. This summons comes a day after Arvind Kejriwal was granted bail by the additional chief metropolitan magistrate of Rouse Avenue Court against arrest for skipping summons issued to him by the probe agency.

What is the Delhi Jal Board case?

The Enforcement Directorate is probing violation of norms and irregularities in at least two contracts of the Delhi Jal Board.

In the first matter, in which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a corruption case in July 2022, it is alleged that officials of DJB favoured NKG Infrastructure Limited while awarding a tender to the company for supply, installation, testing and commissioning of electromagnetic flow meters in connivance with officials of NBCC (lndia) Limited.

The second matter based on which ED launched a money laundering probe relates to a first information report (FIR) filed by the Anti-Corruption Branch of Delhi government in November 2022, in which DJB awarded a tender for setting up automotive bill payment collection machines (kiosks) at different locations in different DJB offices.

The kiosks were set up to facilitate consumers in bill payment through various modes of payments including cash and cheques and the tender was awarded to Corporation Bank in 2012, which was further sub-contracted to Chennai-based private companies Freshpay IT Solutions Pvt Ltd and Aurrum E-payments Pvt Ltd.

The ED alleges that these companies violated norms as prescribed in the agreement by not depositing the cash payment collections in the bank account of the DJB, as stipulated in the agreement, and not transferring the same to DJB within the prescribed time period.

ED maintains that previous search operations on July 24, 2023, and November 17, 2023, resulted in the seizure of incriminating documents and evidence related to the case.