ED asks Apple to help access CM Arvind Kejriwal’s phone; questioning for 5 hours daily

Senior officials linked to the case said that the Chief Minister, during his questioning, has stated that by accessing his telephone data and chats, the ED would be privy to details of AAP’s “election strategy” and pre-poll alliances.

The ED is known to have officially contacted Apple, manufacturers of the phone, to obtain access to the CM’s iPhone but have been told that a password was necessary for retrieving any data.

The Chief Minister has told the ED that this phone has been with him for about a year and that the device he was using when the liquor policy was being drafted in 2020-2021 was no longer with him.

The CM is being questioned for about five hours each day, senior officials said.

The ED proposes to ask for a four-day extension of the Chief Minister’s remand failing which it would ask for his judicial custody.

“The Central Bureau of Investigation, which has registered the predicate offence in the case, may also ask for his custodial remand now or can be granted this even if the Chief Minister is in JC in Tihar Jail,” a top official said.

Kejriwal is also learnt to have told ED sleuths questioning him that it was on the basis of “legal advice” that he did not respond to the spate of summons prior to his arrest.

According to the ED remand, Kejriwal has been accused of laundering money via the new liquor policy and illegally obtaining funds to the tune of Rs 100 crore of which Rs 45 crore was allegedly used for AAP’s 2021-22 election campaign in Goa.

During his custody, Kejriwal has also been “confronted” with C Arvind, the former PS to jailed Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. Arvind, the remand application alleged, had been handed over the draft Group of Ministers report on the liquor policy at the residence of Kejriwal.

The Chief Minister, officials said, has been “confronted’ with “one or two more” key individuals linked to the case but their names were not being divulged.

C Arvind reiterated his statement in the presence of the Chief Minister who is learnt to have said that he couldn’t recall the instructions he is supposed to have given him. Asked about his instructions to officials and politicians, Kejriwal is said to have replied that there was a crush of MLAs and political workers meeting him every day and he could not recollect specific conversations.

During his questioning, officials said, Kejriwal is also said to have denied the claim by N D Gupta, Rajya Sabha MP and National Treasurer of AAP. In a statement to the ED, Gupta had said that it was the Chief Minister who was “overall in charge” of the party and its election expenses.

Shown this, the Chief Minister is learnt to have said that this was inaccurate and that he had little knowledge about the financial affairs or the pattern of AAP’s election funding.