This is one of the submissions made by the ED, Wednesday, in its affidavit filed in the SC, opposing Kejriwal's plea against his arrest.
The Enforcement Directorate has informed the Supreme Court that “a total of over 170 approx mobile phones were changed/destroyed by 36 persons” and that “crucial digital evidences” and “money trail have been actively destroyed,” refuting Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s appeal against his arrest in the Delhi excise policy case.
This is only one of the arguments put out by the ED on Wednesday in its affidavit, which was submitted before the SC in opposition to Kejriwal’s motion to stay arrested.
The organization stated that the idea of free and fair elections can never be violated by the arrest of a person for committing an offense based only on material evidence, “however high he may be.” According to the ED’s affidavit, “politicians who are criminals would be granted immunity from arrest on the ground that he is required to canvass in the election” if it is determined that such an arrest would contradict the idea of free and fair polls.
The statement stated that treating a politician differently from a regular criminal would be an arbitrary and unreasonable use of the arrest authority, which would be against the
equality as guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution. According to the organization, Kejriwal was detained because the investigating officer had information that, as stipulated by section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, “would indicate his guilt of the money laundering offence punishable” under the Act.
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Kejriwal had been called nine times, but the ED said that he was “avoiding interrogation by not remaining present before the investigating officer.” He was being evasive and completely uncooperative even when it came to answering straightforward, non-incriminating questions on the day of the search.
The investigating agency stated that “large-scale destruction of evidence” must be taken into consideration while examining the “Liquor Scam.” “A total of around 170 mobile phones were altered or destroyed by 36 individuals (including the accused and other participants)…The affidavit stated that “in this way, the vital digital evidences…money trail have been actively destroyed,” but that “the agency has been able to recover key evidences which directly reveals the role of the petitioner in process and activities relating to proceeds of crime, despite such active and criminal destruction of evidence.”
“No wholesaler had an incentive to give a bribe to the Aam Aadmi Party under the old excise policy, the old policy therefore required a change to facilitate the reimbursement of the wholesale license holder for the bribe taken from the wholesaler,” the agency stated.
The agency went on, “In order to implement these changes, a new policy was needed. Kejriwal, therefore, played a key role in creating this new policy, which inter alia permitted a wholesaler to have a 12% margin.” The bribe givers were compensated with this enormous margin.
