Today (4th April) In the DJB money laundering case, the court has directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to furnish a copy of the charge sheet to the accused
NEW DELHI: Today (4th April) A Delhi court ordered the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to supply a copy of the charge sheet to the accused in a money laundering case related to alleged irregularities in awarding tenders by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).
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The court proceedings involved the production of two accused, Jagdish Arora (former DJB chief engineer) and Anil Aggarwal (a contractor), who are currently under judicial custody. Additionally, Tejinder Singh, another accused, appeared before the court, while D.K. Mittal, a former NBCC general manager, sought exemption from personal appearance. The court has scheduled the next hearing for April 20 to scrutinize the documents.
The Delhi court directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to provide a copy of the charge sheet to the accused in the money laundering case. The accused include Jagdish Arora, former DJB chief engineer, and Anil Aggarwal, a contractor, who were produced before the court while being in judicial custody.
Following the court’s summons issued after taking cognizance of the charge sheet, another accused named Tejinder Singh appeared before the court. Meanwhile, D.K. Mittal, a former NBCC general manager and the fourth accused, filed an application seeking exemption from personal appearance for the day.
The prosecution complaint filed by the ED on March 28 spans approximately 8,000 pages, including 140 operational pages and annexures.
Apart from the individuals accused in the case, the Central Bureau of Investigation has also named NKG Infrastructure Limited as a defendant in the charge sheet. The ED alleges that corruptly obtained bribe money from a DJB contract was funneled as election funds to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi.
The agency summoned Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for questioning in the case, but he did not appear before them. Kejriwal was previously arrested by the ED on March 21 in another money laundering case related to alleged irregularities in the Excise policy. He is presently in judicial custody for that case.
During the investigation, the ED conducted raids on the premises of Kejriwal’s personal assistant Bibhav Kumar, AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP and treasurer N.D. Gupta, former DJB member Shalabh Kumar, chartered accountant Pankaj Mangal, and others in February.
The ED’s case is based on an FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which accuses Jagdish Arora of awarding a DJB contract to NKG Infrastructure Limited for a total cost of Rs 38 crore, despite the company not meeting the technical eligibility criteria.
The ED arrested Arora and Agarwal on January 31, alleging that NKG Infrastructure Limited secured the contract using forged documents, and that Arora was aware of this fact.
An ED statement has alleged that Arora “received” a bribe in cash and in bank accounts after awarding the contract to NKG Infrastructure Limited and “passed on” the money to various people managing the DJB affairs, including “persons connected with the AAP”.
The agency claims that Rs 45 crore out of a total of Rs 100 crore in bribe money from the New repealed Excise policy of 2021-22 was used by the AAP for campaigning in the Goa Assembly polls.
“As against the contract value of Rs 38 crore, only about Rs 17 crore were spent towards the contract and the remaining amount was siphoned off in the guise of various fake expenses. Such fake expenses were booked for bribes and election funds,” the ED has alleged.
Delhi minister Atishi denied the charges, stating during a press briefing that the case is another attempt to tarnish the image of the AAP and its leaders.
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