On Thursday morning, the Enforcement Directorate conducted searches at the residence of Delhi minister Raaj Kumar Anand, in advance of the agency’s scheduled questioning of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal later in the day. Simultaneously, ED raids were underway at nine locations associated with Minister Anand. While Kejriwal is set to be interrogated regarding a money laundering investigation related to Delhi’s liquor policy, the searches at Raaj Kumar Anand’s properties were prompted by a charge sheet filed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on allegations of making false declarations in imports to evade customs duties exceeding ₹7 crore, as well as international hawala transactions, according to sources.
Raj Kumar Anand, a 57-year-old MLA representing Patel Nagar, had taken over the education and health ministries following the resignations of Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain earlier this year. Subsequently, health was assigned to Saurabh Bharadwaj, while education went to Atishi.
These developments occur at a time when Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, and AAP MP Sanjay Singh are in custody, each on separate charges. Kejriwal’s interrogation by the ED pertains to the liquor case, for which Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh were also arrested. Notably, this is not the first time Kejriwal has faced questioning in the liquor case, as he was previously summoned by the CBI in April and questioned for nine hours.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) expressed concerns that the ED might arrest Kejriwal, with Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj stating that if that were to happen, the party and the Delhi government would continue their operations even from jail. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha suggested that following Kejriwal’s case, other opposition leaders, including Hemant Soren, Tejashwi Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, MK Stalin, and Pinarayi Vijayan, could also be targeted and incarcerated in the lead-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha election.