New Delhi: Kejriwal's ED custody extended till Fools' Day

New Delhi : A court here Thursday extended the Enforcement Directorate custody of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal till April 1 in the excise policy case. The agency sought seven-day custody of the AAP chief, but the court said he has to be produced before it on April 1 at 11 am.

ED said that during the ED custody, Kejriwal was confronted with C Arvind, the then personal secretary to deputy CM Manish Sisodia who was handed over the draft Group of Ministers (GoM) report for the 2021-22 excise policy at the residence of the CM. It said the statement of one of the AAP candidates in the 2022 Goa elections was also recorded during Kejriwal's ED custody. It revealed that the candidate did not have any money and his election expenditure was "taken care of by the AAP Office Delhi only through their associates", The plea said that during the custody, data from the mobile phone of the chief minister's wife have been extracted and were being analysed.

It said the during the interrogation, summonses were issued to senior excise officials in Punjab who were "involved in the arm-twisting of certain (liquor) wholesalers of Delhi."

Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Thursday said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, during his remand hearing in a city court, sought to know whether just four statements against him in connection with the alleged excise policy scam were enough for his arrest.

Kejriwal also said in the court that the objective of the ED probe into the alleged liquor scam was to "crush AAP and prove it was corrupt", said Bharadwaj who was present in the court. The Delhi chief minister also brought to the cognisance of the court that one of the four witnesses whose statements were used against him, donated Rs 55 crore to the BJP through

electoral bonds which was a proof of money trail in the alleged liquor scam, Bharadwaj said.