Man accused of managing AAP funds during Goa polls latest arrest in ED’s excise policy case

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Chanpreet Singh, who allegedly managed funds for the Aam Aadmi Party’s campaign during the 2022 Goa assembly polls, in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. “He was arrested on Friday and produced before a Delhi court on Saturday. He was sent to ED custody till April 18 by the court,” an official said. This is the 17th arrest in the case by the ED.

In a statement, the party said, “After two years of investigation and over 500 raids, not a single rupee or evidence has been recovered from AAP leaders. ED is running a politically motivated investigation and making its case solely based on statements of approvers…”

In its remand application filed in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court last month, the ED had claimed that bribes received from the “South Group” were funnelled into the AAP’s Goa assembly poll campaign in 2021-2022.

According to the ED, the money reached Goa via a network of hawala transactions run by informal cash couriers – known colloquially as angadiyas – with alleged links to AAP functionaries, members of the South Group, and Chariot Productions Media Pvt Ltd, a firm engaged by the party for its election campaign in Goa.

The ED said that during the probe, it found that many vendors engaged for outdoor campaigns by Chariot Media were made “part cash part bill” payments and the employee of an angadiya operator had delivered cash to them. After a raid by the Income Tax department in January 2022 at the Goa office of an angadiya operator, some “documents, chits and slips” were seized, which led the agency to conclude that approximately Rs 45 crore had been transferred through hawala transactions to Goa.

The ED said that in subsequent disclosures, an employee of an angadiya operator claimed that he handed over a large amount of cash to three persons, including Chanpreet.

The ED said that as per the seized records, Chanpreet collected Rs 17.38 crore over 18 occasions from the employee of an angadiya operator from August 2021 to January 2022. As per call detail records, calls on multiple dates exchanged between them match with the dates mentioned in the data seized by the IT department as the date of cash collection, the ED alleged.

According to the ED, Chanpreet had been an employee of Chariot since 2020 and later allegedly joined as a freelancer in May-June 2021 till March 2022 for AAP’s election campaign in Goa.

“He also received a salary from AAP directly in February 2022. He has also received a salary of Rs 55,000 in February-March 2021 from M/s Wizspk Communications and PR Ltd, who were engaged by the Department of Information and Publicity of the GNCTD (Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi) for PR work,” the ED claimed in its remand application.

The ED claimed that he also received funds from the events management company OML, whose former CEO is the jailed AAP communications in-charge Vijay Nair. “These evidences further establish a deep relationship and nexus of Chanpreet Singh with all major conspirators and accused in the Delhi liquor scam, that is, Vijay Nair, Rajesh Joshi and certain AAP leaders and the AAP,” the ED alleged.

In its remand note, the ED said that after tracing the proceeds of these transactions and through the statements of people engaged in the election campaign-related activities, it found that cash payments were made to survey workers, area managers and assembly managers engaged by the AAP in the election campaign in Goa and that “these persons have revealed that these payments were given to them in cash and were managed by Chanpreet”.

In May 2023, the Central Bureau of Investigation had arrested Chanpreet in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. The agency had alleged that Chanpreet was collecting money from angadiyas and “distributing it” further for expenses incurred during the party’s assembly election campaign in Goa in 2022.