Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal skipped the seventh summons on Monday, saying he would appear before the agency if a court ordered him to do so.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal yet again for questioning in the Delhi Excise policy ‘scam’. The Chief Minister has been asked to appear before the probe agency on March 4. This is for the eight time that Kejriwal has been summoned by the ED in connection with the money laundering case linked to the excise policy “scam”.
Kejriwal, 55, skipped the seventh summons on Monday, saying he would appear before the agency if a court ordered him to do so. Kejriwal alleged that the summons was a tool to pressure him into leaving the INDIA block.
The ED had recently filed a fresh complaint before a Delhi court against Kejriwal for disobeying its summons in this case. A Delhi court then directed the chief minister to appear before the court on March 16.
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In a statement, the AAP said the probe agency should wait for its order instead of sending summonses repeatedly.
However, while issuing the eighth summons, the Enforcement Directorate rejected the contention that a fresh notice for Kejriwal’s attendance was wrong as the matter was sub-judice, news agency PTI reported.
On February 14, the ED had issued a sixth summons to the Delhi Chief Minister in the money laundering probe related to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 case, asking him to join the investigation on February 19.
The fresh summons to the Delhi Chief Minister were issued after he skipped the fifth summons on February 2.
Arvind Kejriwal had earlier skipped five previous summons issued by the ED on February 2, January 18, January 3, November 2 and December 22, calling them “illegal and politically motivated. He had also written to the ED seeking their withdrawal.
Kejriwal’s name has been mentioned multiple times in chargesheets filed by the ED in the case. The agency said that the accused were in touch with him regarding the preparation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22. The ED had claimed in its chargesheet that the AAP used “proceeds of crime” to the tune of about ₹45 crore in its Goa election campaign.
It is alleged that the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge repeatedly refuted by the AAP.
AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, and communications in-charge of the party Vijay Nair have been arrested in this case by the ED till now.
This article was published on Livemint.com!
