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New Delhi:

Opening a new chapter in the country’s jurisprudence, the Enforcement Directorate has, for the first time, named a political party as an accused in a case. 

In a supplementary chargesheet filed in the Rouse Avenue court in the alleged liquor policy scam on Friday, the Enforcement Directorate has named the Aam Aadmi Party – a national political party – and its national convenor, Arvind Kejriwal, who is out on interim bail in the case. The agency is probing the money laundering angle of the alleged scam. 

The agency is probing the money laundering angle of the alleged scam and this is the eighth chargesheet it has filed in the case, but the first in which the Delhi chief minister has been named. Mr Kejriwal was arrested on March 21, becoming the third senior AAP leader to be taken into custody in the alleged scam, after his former deputy Manish Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh. 

Sources said the decision to name the AAP as an accused can have major repercussions for the party. The Enforcement Directorate, they said, now has the option of writing to the Election Commission of India and requesting them to begin the process of derecognising the Aam Aadmi Party. It can also attach the party’s assets, including its headquarters in Delhi. 

The development comes at a time when the AAP finds itself embroiled in a controversy surrounding its Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal, who has alleged that she was slapped and kicked by Mr Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar at the chief minister’s residence on Monday, when she was waiting to meet the AAP chief.

The development comes at a time when the AAP has found itself embroiled in a controversy surrounding its Rajya Sabha MP, Swati Maliwal, who has alleged that she was slapped and kicked by Mr Kejriwal’s aide, Bibhav Kumar, at the chief minister’s residence on Monday, when she was waiting to meet the AAP chief.

The allegations have kicked up a political storm and the AAP has faced attacks from various quarters, including from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. An alleged video from the day has also led to Ms Maliwal and the AAP trading charges. Earlier on Friday, a Delhi Police team, accompanied by forensic specialists, had visited Mr Kejriwal’s residence as part of its investigation into Ms Maliwal’s complaint.