Kejriwal skipped four earlier summons issued by the federal agency for 18 January and 3 January, and 2 November and 21 December in 2023.
AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. (Supplied)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a fresh and the fifth summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his questioning in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case, official sources said Wednesday, 31 January.
Kejriwal, also the national convenor of the AAP, has skipped four earlier summons issued by the federal agency for 18 January and 3 January in 2024, and 2 November and 21 December in 2023. He had called these notices “illegal”.
It is understood that the fresh summons is for Friday, 2 February.
The AAP had asserted that Kejriwal was ready to cooperate with the agency but claimed that the summons was sent with the intention of arresting him.
“Why has the notice been sent right before elections? The notice is an attempt to stop Kejriwal from campaigning in elections,” the party alleged.
On 2 November, Kejriwal skipped the questioning alleging the notice was “illegal” and “politically motivated”.
He skipped the second summons as he left to an undisclosed location for a 10-day “Vipassana” meditation course and returned on 30 December 2023.
AAP’s chief national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar had said, on 2 January, that they would act according to law over the EDs summons to Kejriwal.
“Our legal team will be better equipped to answer this question. We will act as per the law,” Kakkar said during a press conference when asked if Kejriwal would appear before the ED for questioning.
On the same day, Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj had said that the party’s legal team would give their advice on the matter.
The AAP had also accused the BJP-led Union government of hatching a conspiracy to arrest Chief Minister Kejriwal to stop him from campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing a press conference, Bharadwaj questioned the timing of the ED summons.
“The ED has still not answered in what capacity he is being summoned — as a witness or an accused. The entire excise policy case is political and an attempt to stop Kejriwal from campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls. The BJP-led Union government has hatched a conspiracy to get him arrested,” he said.
The ED has claimed in one of the charge sheets that it has recorded the statement of Butchibabu Gorantla, an accountant allegedly linked to BRS MLC K Kavitha, in which he said “There was political understanding between K Kavitha and the chief minister (Kejriwal) and (former) deputy chief minister (Manish Sisodia). In that process, K Kavitha also met Vijay Nair (AAP communications in-charge arrested in the case) on 19-20 March 2021”.
In an another instance involving arrested accused Dinesh Arora, the ED said he told the agency that he had met Kejriwal once at his residence.
Similarly, the ED charge sheet said YSRCP MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy also held meetings with Kejriwal, wherein the AAP leader welcomed his entry into the Delhi liquor business.
It had said Butchibabu and another accused, Arun Pillai, have revealed that they and Nair were working with the “support and sanction” of Kejriwal and Sisodia for all the excise policy-related activities, including its formulation and implementation.
It had also alleged that Nair “arranged a video call through Facetime (a video-calling facility on iPhone) for another arrested accused, Sameer (Mahendru), and Arvind Kejriwal, where Arvind said to Sameer that Vijay is his boy and that Sameer should trust him and carry on with him”.
The central agency had summoned Kejriwal for questioning in the alleged Delhi excise policy case and recorded his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA.
Kejriwal’s party colleagues, Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh are in judicial custody in this case.
The AAP had alleged that Kejriwal would be the first to be arrested as part of the BJP’s plan to target top INDIA bloc leaders ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the ED summons were an attempt to finish the party that is in power in Delhi and Punjab.
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.
The policy was subsequently scrapped, and the Delhi lieutenant governor recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the PMLA.
(With PTI inputs)
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