Excise policy case: ED questions Delhi minister for 5 hours

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate questioned Delhi minister Kailash Gahlot for about five hours on Saturday and recorded his statement in connection with a money-laundering investigation linked to the AAP government's now-scrapped excise policy, officials said.

Gahlot (49), an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Najafgarh, is the minister for transport, home and law in the Delhi government led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been arrested in the case by the federal agency. The minister, who entered the ED office in central Delhi around 11:30 am and left after 4:30 pm, said he answered all the questions from the agency and will continue to cooperate in the probe.

Sources said Gahlot was questioned with regard to the formulation of the excise policy for 2021-22 as he was part of the Group of Ministers (GoM), along with former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and former urban development minister Satyendar Jain. Gahlot said he was called by the ED for questioning in the case as “probably I was part of the GoM... It (questioning) was about all aspects of the policy and I answered to the best of my knowledge and memory.”

He said this was the second summons sent to him as he could not depose for the first time about a month back as the Budget session of the Delhi assembly was on. The agency has mentioned Gahlot’s name in its charge sheet and in the context of Vijay Nair, the AAP communications in-charge arrested earlier in the case, saying Nair lived in the government bungalow allotted to Gahlot.