Delhi Minister RK Anand Latest to Face ED Heat: List of Senior AAP Leaders Under Scanner of Central Agencies

Delhi’s social welfare minister Raaj Kumar Anand joined a long list of senior AAP leaders, including national convener and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who are under the scanner of central agencies in different cases. The Enforcement Directorate searched his residence in a money laundering case on Thursday.

Inducted into the Delhi cabinet in November last year, he is the latest to face the ED heat. The investigation stems from a chargesheet filed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on charges of false declarations in imports for customs evasion of more than Rs 7 crore apart from international hawala transactions, official sources said.

Here is the list of all AAP leaders facing action in various cases:

1. Arvind Kejriwal In December 2015, Kejriwal had claimed his office at the Delhi secretariat was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which denied the search. The raid in a corruption case was carried out at the chief minister’s principal secretary at the Delhi secretariat. After the CBI raid, he had famously said the investigating agency would find nothing but a few mufflers even if it searched his residence.
2. Manish Sisodia The CBI arrested Kejriwal’s former deputy on February 26 for his alleged role in the excise policy “scam”. After he was made an accused in the case, the CBI conducted searches at his official residence, his village and looked into his bank lockers. The CBI case pertains to alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the excise policy 2021-22 of the AAP government, which was subsequently scrapped. Sisodia, who also held the excise portfolio, resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28. The ED also arrested him in a money laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9 after questioning him in Tihar jail. His bail plea was rejected by the Supreme Court earlier this week.
3. Satyendar Jain Then holding important portfolios such as health, home, power and urban development in the Delhi government, the ED arrested Jain on May 30, 2022, under charges of money laundering linked to a hawala dealings case. Days after his arrest, on June 6, 2022, the ED conducted raids including at Jain’s residence as part of a “follow-up” in the case. The leader spent nearly a year behind bars before being granted interim bail by the Supreme Court in May, in view of his poor health. He is currently recovering after a surgery and his bail has been extended multiple times.
4. Sanjay Singh A vocal leader of the AAP and Rajya Sabha MP, the ED arrested Singh last month in the money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam. He was arrested by the agency after they conducted searches at his residence in North Avenue for hours.
5. Kailash Gahlot Way back in 2018, the income tax department teams raided multiple premises, including the residence of transport minister Kailash Gahlot. The searches were conducted as part of a tax evasion probe against two companies allegedly operated and owned by the minister’s family members.
6. Amanatullah Khan AAP MLA from Okhla, Khan has been under the scanner of the CBI and the ED in recent years. ED sleuths knocked on his doors on October 14 for a search as part of a money laundering probe against him and others. The CBI booked the MLA, who was chairman of the Delhi Waqf Board, in a case of alleged irregularities in recruitment at the board in 2016. In March, the CBI grilled him in the case for hours. Recently, Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena granted the CBI sanction to prosecute Khan in the case.
7. Vijay Nair The CBI arrested the businessman and AAP communications incharge on September 27 last year in connection with the Delhi excise policy scam case. Nair was arrested for his alleged role in “cartelisation” and “conspiracy” related to alleged irregularities in the allocation of liquor licence in the national capital.

(With PTI inputs)