Goa AAP leaders, Benaulim, Velim MLAs must expect ED ‘midnight knock’ in the next 2-3 days: Sources

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has told a court in Delhi that it wants to interrogate and confront arrested AAP Convenor and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal with several Goa AAP leaders and the AAP MLAs of Velim and Benaulim in the Delhi Excise Policy case who were allegedly the recipients of Rs 45 crore in cash, which was used by the Goa AAP unit for the State polls in 2022.

While AAP Goa chief Amit Palekar denied that such an amount was received in cash and stated that the MLA candidates spent their own money, statements of some Goa AAP leaders, including an MLA candidate recorded by the ED show that all payments were made in cash, the ED told the court during Kejriwal’s remand.

The ED which is probing the money laundering angle has insisted in the court that the amounts were paid in cash and were the ‘proceeds of crime’, causing a total loss of Rs 600 crore to the exchequer.

Sources said that at least two Goa AAP leaders (who received the bulk of the cash in hand) could be arrested, unless they co-operate with the ED in the ongoing investigation. The ED claims it has solid evidence to prove the charges of money-laundering against Kejriwal and other AAP leaders.

In Delhi according to a PTI report, BJP leaders and karyakartas braved water cannons and several of them were detained by police as they tried to march towards the secretariat building near ITO today, demanding that arrested Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal resign and step down from his post.

Police detained several AAP leaders and workers near Patel Chowk Metro station when they were trying to take out a protest march to gherao the prime minister’s residence against the arrest of Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21 in connection with the excise policy-linked money laundering case, PTI said.