AAP used liquor scam money to fund Goa polls campaign:ED

The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) allegedly used money generated from a purported liquor scam to fund its election campaign in Goa in 2022. In the chargesheet, the ED has claimed that Rs 70 lakh in cash payments were made to volunteers of AAP’s survey teams, adding that party’s communications chief Vijay Nair allegedly told “certain persons” who were involved in AAP’s campaign related work, to receive payments in cash. In a statement, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said the allegations levelled by the ED as “completely fictional”.

It further said Vijay Nair, on behalf of AAP, received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore from a group comprising of YSRCP MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, his son Raghav Magunta, Aurobindo Pharma director P Sarath Chandra Reddy and Telangana CM KCR’s daughter Kavitha Kalvakuntla. The ED further alleged that Abhishek Boinpally, a Hyderabad-based businessman, in conspiracy with Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s aide Dinesh Arora had facilitated the transfer of the kickback money. The agency also filed a supplementary chargesheet in the case against AAP’s Vijay Nair, businessmen Sarath Reddy, Binoy Babu, Abhishek Boinpally and Amit Arora. The chargesheet, which was produced before Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court on Thursday, did not include Manish Sisodia’s name. Further investigation in the case is ongoing, the ED told the court.