ED grills Durgesh Pathak in excise policy case

| | NEW DELHI
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ED grills Durgesh Pathak in excise policy case

Tuesday, 20 September 2022 | Staff Reporter | NEW DELHI

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday recorded the statement of AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak in connection with its money laundering probe into the now-scrapped excise policy of the Kejriwal Government. Pathak is the AAP’s in-charge for Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls.

With this, four of AAP’s senior party leaders, including former Health Minister Satyendar Jain, Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia and Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan are facing the heat from central investigating agencies like the CBI, ED and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) that comes under the Lieutenant Governor (L-G).

According to sources, Pathak’s statement was recorded under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). “Pathak will be questioned about his role in this case and his purported links with Vijay Nair, former CEO of an entertainment and event management firm and an accused in the case,” sources added.

The ED had earlier examined Pathak's phone after the first round of raids conducted by it on September 6. Earlier in the day, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak had been summoned by the ED in connection with its excise policy investigation. Raising concern over the summons to Pathak, Sisodia wondered whether the agency was targeting the MCD polls.

Sisodia – who has been named as one of the accused in the liquor policy case – took to Twitter and said, “What does AAP’s MCD in-charge have to do with the liquor policy? Today the ED has summoned the AAP’s MCD polls in-charge Durgesh Pathak. Is their target the liquor policy or the MCD elections?” “Now, the BJP-ED-CBI alliance will contest both the Gujarat and Delhi (civic body) elections,” the AAP's spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj charged in a tweet in Hindi. He said the EDs summon to Pathak has made it clear that MCD elections are going to be held in Delhi. AAP leader Atishi hit out at the BJP and alleged that the ED's move has made it clear that the “actual target” is the “rising political graph” of AAP national convenor Kejriwal, not the excise policy. The ED's probe into Delhi excise policy is “just an excuse,” she charged.

“The ED's summons to @AamAadmiParty MCD election in-charge Durgesh Pathak makes it clear that investigation into liquor policy is just an excuse. The rising political graph of @ArvindKejriwal is the actual target,” Atishi said in a tweet in Hindi.

The ED had last week conducted raids at multiple locations across the country in connection with Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 after taking over the case from the CBI.

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