The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the liquor scam case, has found that Mumbai-based hawala operators and angadias (traditional couriers) were allegedly used to send money (proceeds of the crime) to Goa for the assembly election campaign. This allegation is contained in the remand application filed by the directorate.
According to the ED, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is the major beneficiary of the proceeds of crime generated in the Delhi liquor scam. It found that around ₹45 crore from the ₹100 crore scam was used in AAP's campaign for the Goa assembly elections 2021-22. This money originated from bribes received from the South Group, which includes prominent figures like K Kavitha (daughter of former Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao), Magunta S Reddy, Raghav Magunta, and Sarath Reddy, who were interested in the Delhi liquor market.
According to the ED's remand application, Dinesh Arora, a trusted aide of former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and now an approver in the case, revealed during his statement to the ED on October 1, 2022, that he orchestrated a hawala transfer amounting to ₹31 crore. This transfer was conducted in collaboration with Abhishek Boinpally, Rajesh Joshi, and an individual known as Sudhir. The operation was carried out on the instructions of Vijay Nair, a key associate of Kejriwal, who is alleged to have received kickbacks totaling ₹100 crore from the South Group.
Boinpally is one of the key representatives of the South Group and Sudhir is a close associate of Vijay Nair.
'Part cash part bill' payments
According to the ED, AAP had engaged M/s Chariot Productions Media Pvt Ltd, owned by one Rajesh Joshi, for its election campaign in Goa. The ED examined the vendors of M/s Chariot Productions engaged for outdoor campaigns. The agency claimed to have found that many of the vendors were made 'part cash part bill' payments by M/s Chariot Productions. One such vendor is Grace Advertising whose employee Islam Qazi has revealed to the ED that he raised the invoice for only a partial amount and the remaining was paid to him in cash.
Qazi got another vendor i.e. M/s Sparks Entertainment engaged with M/s Chariot Productions. He told Aaron Schubert D'souza of M/s Sparks Entertainment that the AAP payments are going to be part bill part cash.
Qazi revealed that he was given ₹6.29 lacs payment via hawala and he had gotten it collected from a hawala operator in Malad, Mumbai.
Role of Mumbai-based hawala operators and angadiyas
These hawala operators and angadiyas from Mumbai were Anand Vyas and Anil Patel, who gave ₹4.25 lacs cash and ₹2.45 lacs cash respectively to Qazi. Similarly, Aaron D'souzaof Sparks Entertainment received ₹5.5 lakhs in cash out of the total payment of ₹13.6 lakhs, ED's remand application stated.
One Anil Patel (employee of Mumbai branch of angadia operator R Kantilal) revealed before ED that he delivered this money to Qazi on the instructions of Sagar Patel, another employee of R Kantilal based in Goa.
On examination of Sagar Patel, it was revealed that the IT Dept had raided the Goa office of R Kantilal angadia in January 2022 and several documents, notes, chits, slips were seized by the IT Dept. Accordingly, the data was retrieved from the IT Dept and analysed which shows that ₹45 crore approx. had been transferred through hawala to Goa. This hawala trail of ₹45 crore was also investigated and substantiated by the CBI.
Patel revealed before ED that he has handed over huge cash amounts to three persons- Prince Kumar, Charanpreet Singh and Rajiv Mondkar in Goa. Prince Kumar is an employee in M/s Chariot Productions Media Pvt Ltd., Chanpreet Singh worked in Chariot Media on a regular as well as freelance basis. Mondkar was brought in by Singh to work on the election campaign in Goa.
As per the seized records of IT Department, Prince had collected ₹16,08 lakh, from Sagar Patel, employee of R Kantilal angadia firm in Goa.
Chanpreet Singh has collected ₹17.38 crore on 18 occasions from Sagar Patel from August 2021 to January 2022.
Rajiv Mondkar himself collected ₹27 crore on about 16 occasions from Sagar Patel in the period from June 2021 to December 2021.
According to ED investigation shared with the court the directorate mentioned that Chanpreet Singh, an employee of M/s Chariot Productions Media Pvt Ltd, which was engaged in the election campaign for AAP, has deep relationships and a nexus with all major conspirators and accused in the Delhi liquor scam. This includes Vijay Nair, Rajesh Joshi, certain AAP leaders, and AAP itself.
ED probe has revealed that the money which was transferred to Goa came from four routes- ₹12 crore from Ashok Chandu Bhai of Asheel Corporation (angadiya), ₹7.1 crore from Devang Solanki of K S Enterprise (angadiya), ₹16 crore from Kirti Amba Lal (angadiya), ₹7.5 crore from Neelkanth Angadiya and ₹2 crore from Maa Ambey angadiya.
Devang Solanki has revealed before ED that he had received ₹7.1 crore from Arvind Singh. Arvind Singh at the time of these transfers, was production controller cum commercial head at India Ahead News Channel of Gautam Mootha, co-owned by Abhishek Boinpally of the South Group.
Kirti Amba Lal Angadiya, Neelkanth Angadiya and Ma Ambe Angadiya have revealed before ED that they had received this money from one Chandan Kumar Tripathi, who then confirmed to ED that a total amount of ₹25.5 crore was given to him by Ashish Mathur and Tara Singh for onward transfer. During investigation, it is found that Ashish Mathur and Tara Singh are associates of Vinod Chauhan, who was a part of the liquor syndicate. Chauhan was in touch with the then private Secretary of K Kavitha (South Group Member) Ashok Kaushik.
Ashok Kaushik's call details reveals that he was in regular touch with other members of South Group Abhishek Boinpally and Arun Pillai and Sameer Mahandru of M/s Indo Spirits.
During the period of June 2021-August 2021, Ashok Kaushik collected two heavy bags containing cash from Dinesh Arora's office on Abhishek Boinpally's đirections and delivered it to Vinod Chauhan.
On another occasion, he collected two such bags containing cash from anaddress near Todapur, Narayana, New Delhi and again delivered it to Vinod Chauhan, states ED's remand application.
