ED raids properties linked to Delhi Minister Raaj Kumar Anand; CM Kejriwal to be quizzed today

The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday, November 2, conducted raid at the residence, and nine other locations linked to Delhi Minister Raaj Kumar Anand in a money laundering case.

Anand, 57, is the minister for social welfare and SC/ST welfare among others in the Arvind Kejriwal-led government. He is an MLA from Patel Nagar.

On ED raid on the premises of Anand, Delhi Minister and AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj told ANI, "The fault of Raaj Kumar Anand is that he is an AAP MLA and a minister from the party. Even during the British era, if you had to search someone's house, you needed a search warrant from the court. Even the British believed that if you give the right to police or any agency to enter someone's house to search there will be an atmosphere of terror. Courts gave a search warrant but today ED needs no court warrant, ED officers decide whose house they have to raid. Raids are conducted on the premises of only Opposition leaders..."

The development comes on the day Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to appear before the ED in a related case on Thursday.

The ED has summoned Kejriwal for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam.

Former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was arrested by the CBI in the case in February this year. The ED arrested Sisodia in a money laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9 after questioning him in Tihar jail.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED are probing the Delhi government's now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22 that allegedly favoured certain liquor dealers, an allegation that the AAP has strongly denied.  Based on a report of the chief secretary of Delhi government, Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena recommended a CBI probe in July last year into alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the policy.

The report cited various alleged irregularities including a waiver of Rs 144 crore to the retail licensees under the policy in the name of COVID-19-impacted sales and a refund of Rs 30 crore to a successful bidder for airport zone who failed to obtain a no objection certificate for opening liquor stores there, officials said.

Another allegation was that the commission of wholesale licensees was raised from 5% to 12% in an instance of "quid pro quo", they added.