Lottery scam probe: ED seizes crores from businessman’s house
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the office of a lottery company owner's office-cum-residence and discovered around Rs 3 crore during a 33-hour raid at Lake Market area.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday rejected Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s contention in the Delhi high court that his arrest in connection with the now-scrapped excise policy case was not aimed at stopping him from campaigning in the Lok Sabha election.
During the hearing on Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest, additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju, who appeared for the central probe agency, said that the Delhi CM has “so much influence and has copies of chargesheets, relied and unrelied documents”.
“Criminals and under-trials have no business to say that we will commit a crime and will not be arrested because elections are here. This is completely ridiculous. It will give license to criminals to roam around freely,” Raju said in the court on behalf of ED.
“A common man has to go behind bars if he has committed a crime but because you are a chief minister you can’t be arrested? You will loot the country but no one can touch you because the elections are coming? You say your arrest will infringe on basic structure? What type of basic structure is this?” he argued.
The probe agency said that it was not like we are shooting in the dark and asserted that Kejriwal was involved in the scam.
“Our case is that he was arrested for his role in a dual capacity. He is involved individually which is clear from the approver statements. In his role in policy formulation…We have WhatsApp chats and hawala operators.. it is not as if we are shooting in the dark…We have large amounts of income tax data also…,” he said.
Earlier, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented Kejriwal, told the court that the arrest of Delhi chief minister around the Lok Sabha election disturbs the level-playing field and is against the basic democratic structure.
“This case reeks of timing issues which ensures that Kejriwal is unable to participate in democratic activity and to try to disintegrate the AAP before the first vote is cast,” Singhvi said.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the high court reserved its verdict.
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