ED names Kejriwal, AAP as accused in Delhi excise policy case

The Enforcement Directorate has, for the first time, named a political party as an accused in a case.In a supplementary chargesheet filed in the Rouse Avenue court in the alleged liquor policy scam on Friday, the Enforcement Directorate has named the Aam Aadmi Party - a national political party - and its national convenor, Arvind Kejriwal, who is out on interim bail in the case. The agency is probing the money laundering angle of the alleged scam. 
"We have direct evidence that Kejriwal stayed in a seven-star hotel, whose bills were partly paid by an accused in the case," additional Solicitor General S V Raju told the Supreme Court on Thursday, adding that Kejriwal played a key role in the formulation of the Delhi excise policy, which has now been scrapped.The ED told Supreme Court it discovered chats between Arvind Kejriwal and hawala operators regarding the alleged proceeds of crime in the excise policy case.The agency claims the chats have been recovered from the devices of hawala operators after Kejriwal refused to share the password of his devices.
The agency is probing the money laundering angle of the alleged scam and this is the eighth chargesheet it has filed in the case, but the first in which the Delhi chief minister has been named. Kejriwal is the third senior AAP leader to be taken into custody in the alleged scam, after his former deputy Manish Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh.According to sources, this has opened a new chapter in the country's jurisprudence. It could have a major repercussions for the party.The Enforcement Directorate is likely to write to the Election Commission of India and requesting them to begin the process of derecognising the Aam Aadmi Party. It can also attach the party's assets, including its headquarters in Delhi.