New Delhi:

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Chanpreet Singh for allegedly “managing” cash funds for the AAP campaign in the 2022 Goa Assembly elections in connection with a money laundering case related to Delhi’s excise tax policy, official sources said on Monday.

Sources said Singh was detained under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on April 12 and appeared before a special court the next day.

The court has sent him to ED custody until April 18, they said.

This is the ED’s 17th arrest in the case. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his party colleague and former Delhi Deputy Minister CM Manish Sisodia, BRS leader K Kavitha, along with some liquor traders and others were earlier arrested by federal agencies.

Singh was earlier arrested by the CBI in the same case. The money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR.

The education ministry, through its official documents, informed the court that Chanpreet Singh “managed” cash payments for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) campaign during the 2022 Goa elections and had “relationships” with the political establishment that currently rules Delhi.

The agency alleged that the “Southern Group” – including TDP candidate Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy from Ongole Lok Sabha seat, his son Raghav Magunta, businessman Sarath Chandra Reddy and others – paid a bribe of Rs 100 crore to AAP. Gaining dominance in the Delhi liquor market as part of the now repealed excise policy 2021-22.

ED claimed that out of these alleged kickbacks, AAP used Rs 45 crore to fund its Goa campaign.

The ED claimed that cash payments were made to survey workers, district managers, assembly managers and others involved in AAP campaigning in Goa, who told the agency it was “managed” by a person named Chanpreet Singh.

It also said that an employee of an ‘Angadia’ company, who was involved in illegal transfer of cash, “admitted” to making huge cash payments in Goa to some persons, including Singh, who used to work at Chariot Productions Media Pvt Ltd.

Chariot Productions is the Goa polling company hired by AAP. The company’s director, Rajesh Joshi, was arrested by the Education Ministry last year in connection with the case.

The ED alleged that Singh collected over Rs 17 crore (totaling Rs 17,38,14,500) from employees of ‘Angadia’ in over 18 cases between August 2021 and January 2022, which was also obtained by the CDR “Confirmation” (cell phone call data records) analysis.

Singh allegedly “received salary from the Aam Aadmi Party” in February 2022 and also received salary from a company called Wizspk Communications and PR Ltd hired by the Delhi government.

In addition, the ED claimed that he also received funds from the OML (Only Much Louder) event management company of arrested AAP communications chief Vijay Nair. “These facts initially reflect his relationship with the Aam Aadmi Party”.

On a related note, Mr Kejriwal on Monday did not get any interim relief from the Supreme Court, which asked the education ministry to file a response by April 24 on his plea challenging his arrest in a money laundering case.

The GST case relates to alleged corruption and money laundering by the Delhi government in formulating and implementing the GST policy for 2021-22, which was later repealed.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has suggested that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigate alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the liquor policy. Subsequently, the ED registered a case under PMLA.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)