New Delhi, May 14 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday accused the ED of functioning "like a political wing of the BJP", after the agency contended before the Delhi High Court that it will make AAP an accused in the money laundering case stemming out of the Delhi excise policy scam.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party alleged that the investigation into the excise policy case was" fake" and intended to "crush" the party.

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The ED's submission was made on Tuesday while opposing the bail plea of former deputy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia in the money laundering case.

Responding to the development, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in a statement alleged, "The entire case of ED is built on statements of accused turned approvers, all of whom have links to the BJP."

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"The ED is functioning like a political wing of the BJP. Its intention from the very beginning of this fake investigation was to frame AAP, arrest all its top leaders and crush the party.

"It is well known that even after two years of investigation and over 500 raids, not a single rupee or piece of evidence has been recovered from any of the AAP leaders," it claimed.

The party alleged that Sarath Reddy was the "kingpin of the scam".

"If at all there is any money trail recovered so far in the alleged Delhi liquor scam, it is the Rs 60 crore that kingpin of the scam, Sarath Reddy, has given to BJP.

"If ED had been doing an impartial investigation, it would have immediately arrested BJP president JP Nadda and made BJP the prime accused in the scam. But unfortunately, it is acting as a political wing and a mouthpiece of the BJP," the party alleged.

The high court, which was hearing arguments on Sisodia's bail pleas filed in the money laundering and corruption cases lodged by the ED and CBI respectively, reserved its orders.

"AAP is going to be made a co-accused in the next prosecution complaint (charge sheet) to be filed in the case," ED's counsel contended before Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.

According to the CBI and ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours extended to the licence holders.

Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023, for his alleged role in the "scam". The ED arrested him in the money laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9, 2023.

Sisodia resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023.

The Delhi government implemented the policy on November 17, 2021, but scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)