Delhi court extends Rajesh Joshi's ED remand till Feb 20 in excise policy case

New Delhi, Feb 13 (IANS) A Delhi court on Monday extended the custody of Chariot Productions Media Pvt Ltd's director Rajesh Joshi till February 20 in connection with the Delhi excise policy-related money laundering case after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) requested an extension.

On February 9, the court sent Joshi to the ED's custody for interrogation.

Joshi was earlier produced before Special Judge M K Nagpal, who sent him for custodial interrogation till Monday. However, during the hearing on Monday, the judge extended the custody by seven days.

He was arrested by the ED on February 8.

The ED's counsels submitted that Joshi's confrontation with a few witnesses and further interrogation is yet to be done.

However, Joshi's counsel objected to what the ED said and submitted that during investigations, his client had appeared before the ED eight times and has already been confronted with the witnesses.

He said that the witnesses had earlier been called by the agency and have given their statements.

The ED had earlier requested extension of Joshi's custody by 10 days.

In the ED's chargesheet, it is said that a part of the alleged Rs 100 crore "kickbacks" generated in the scrapped
Delhi excise policy were "used" in the 2022 Goa assembly election campaign of the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party.

The agency has till now filed two prosecution complaints (ED's equivalent to chargesheet) in this case and has arrested a total of eight people, including Joshi.

Gautam Malhotra, son of former SAD MLA from Punjab Deep Malhotra, was arrested in the case on February 7 by the ED.

The ED's money laundering case stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)'s First Information Report.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and some excise officials were named as accused in the CBI and the ED complaints.