Two former Goa MLAs who contested the 2022 state Assembly polls on Aam Aadmi Party tickets have alleged that they were paid in cash by a party volunteer for meeting campaign-related expenses, the CBI has said in its chargesheet in the Delhi excise policy case.
The agency has alleged that of the total of Rs 90-100 crore of ill-gotten money paid by the "South Group" to tweak the excise policy in its favour, an amount of Rs 44.5 crore in cash was sent to Goa for meeting election-related expenses.
In its fifth and final supplementary chargesheet in the case, the Central Bureau of Investigation has alleged that the role of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, along with that of another accused Durgesh Pathak, a Delhi MLA and the AAP in-charge for the Goa polls, has surfaced in the transfer of the ill-gotten money and its use to meet election-related expenditures.
The CBI has alleged that two former MLAs -- Mahadev Narayan Naik and Satyavijay Naik -- were approached by Pathak, who asked them to contest the February 2022 assembly polls on the AAP's tickets from the Shiroda and Valpoi constituencies respectively.
When they cited a lack of funds to contest the election, Pathak allegedly told them that "all the election-related expenditures would be made by the AAP". -- PTI