The Enforcement Directorate on Friday named Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party as accused in a supplementary chargesheet filed in the liquor policy case, Live Law reported.

The central law enforcement agency has for the first time named Kejriwal and his political party in the chargesheet filed at a Delhi court. This also made the Aam Aadmi Party the first Indian political party to be named as accused in a criminal case, ThePrint reported.

This comes after the Supreme Court on May 10 granted interim bail to Kejriwal till June 1 in the money laundering case pertaining to the allegations of corruption in the now-scrapped liquor policy.

The Enforcement Directorate had earlier accused Kejriwal of being “directly involved in the formulation” of the excise policy that was created to benefit a South Group, reported The Indian Express.

The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate have alleged that Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party government in November 2021 modified the now-scrapped liquor excise policy to ensure a 12% profit margin for wholesalers and a nearly 185% profit margin for retailers.

The Enforcement Directorate also claims that members of a so-called South Group had paid at least Rs 100 crore in kickbacks to leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party through businessman Vijay Nair.

The Enforcement Directorate alleged that in return, the “South Group secured uninhibited access, attained stakes in established wholesale businesses and multiple retail zones [over and above what was allowed in the policy]”.

Last month, the Delhi High Court while rejecting Kejriwal’s bail plea had said that a political party can be brought within the purview of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and be named as accused, Live Law reported.

In October, the Supreme Court had also made a similar observation when it asked the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate why they had not made the political party that allegedly benefitted from the crime, an accused in the case.

The court had made the observation while hearing former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s bail plea in the case.

“As far as PMLA [Prevention of Money Laundering Act] is concerned, your whole case is that it went to a political party,” Justice Sanjeev Khanna had asked at the time. “That political party is still not an accused. How do you answer that? He [Manish Sisodia] is not the beneficiary, the political party is the beneficiary.”

Meanwhile, on Friday the Supreme Court reserved its judgement on the plea filed by Kejriwal challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, Live Law reported.