The Chief Minister left for an undisclosed location for a 10-day Vipassana meditation course on 20 December.
Published Dec 22, 2023 | 11:40 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 22, 2023 | 11:40 AM
AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. (Supplied)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Thursday, 21 December, skipped the second summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), alleging that they were issued at the behest of political rivals who wish to silence the voice of the Opposition in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Kejriwal was summoned by the ED for questioning in a Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case on Thursday. The Chief Minister left for an undisclosed location for a 10-day Vipassana meditation course on Wednesday.
Kejriwal had sent his reply to the ED on Wednesday. In it, he said that the summons do not specify whether he was being called as “a witness or a suspect” or as the “Chief Minister, Delhi, or the Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener”.
He said that the fresh summons — issued on 18 December — should be revoked, withdrawn, and recalled.
“The timing of your summons leaves much to be desired and strengthens my belief that the summons being sent to me are not based upon any objective or rational yardstick but for extraneous considerations at the behest of political rivals, who wish to silence the voice of Opposition to the ruling dispensation at the Centre to create sensational news in the final few months leading up to the Parliamentary elections in early to mid-2024,” read Kejriwal’s reply.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is a part of the Opposition INDIA bloc, formed to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.
“On the eve of my departure for Vipassana meditation course, which has been widely published and largely circulated all over the media in the country as well as officially announced, to my utter dismay and concern, I have received the subject summons,” Kejriwal said in his reply.
Earlier, Kejriwal was summoned by the ED on 2 November but he skipped the questioning, alleging the notice was “illegal” and “politically motivated”.
He said that the ED served the fresh summons without responding to the issues raised by him in his previous reply.
“Your summons appears to be a fishing and roving enquiry. In similar circumstances, where individuals are neither informed about the case details nor the capacity in which they are being summoned by the Enforcement Directorate, high courts have declared such summons of the Enforcement Directorate invalid and quashed the summons,” the reply said.
Kejriwal stressed that he is “holding a sensitive Constitutional post as an elected leader and incumbent Chief Minister of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi”.
“I have life of dignity, honour, and with complete transparency. As per my schedule, publicly known to all, from 20 December 2023, I would be attending the Vipassana meditation course which I have been attending annually for the last 25 years,” he said in his reply.
Kejriwal said he is a “law-abiding”, “conscientious”, and an ordinary citizen of the country, and that he does not shirk away from complying with any summons issued in compliance with the law. But the “summons is (I am advised) not in consonance with the law,” he said.
Kejriwal was scheduled to leave for the Vipassana course on Tuesday but could not do so as he was busy with the INDIA bloc meeting. He left around 1:30 pm on Wednesday for the pre-scheduled meditation course, officials said.
“The fact that you have deliberately sought my appearance only in person without specifying any reason or necessity thereof when the said act itself provides for appearance through authorised persons, is indicative of the motive to harass and embarrass me,” he said.
Delhi Minister Atishi at a press conference alleged that the ED probe into the excise policy case was an attempt to stop the AAP growth and popularity.
“The ED is investigating this case for the last two years. In the history of India, no other policy was investigated as much as this policy is being probed by a central agency. They have put more than 500 of their officials on this duty. Since 1947, this might be the first case of a policy investigated by many officials, but no evidence found,” she said.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said for the last 15 months, AAP leaders have been constantly saying that the ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiries in the excise policy case are politically motivated. However, they have failed to show that there was nothing wrong in their liquor policy, he said.
Then why did Manish Sisodia withdraw the policy the moment a CBI inquiry was ordered into it and why is he and Sanjay Singh not getting bail, Sachdeva asked.
According to the ED, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) communication head Vijay Nair, on behalf of AAP leaders, received kickbacks to the tune of ₹100 crore from a so-called “South Group” — as termed in the statements of various persons recorded during the investigation — to manipulate the Delhi excise policy to benefit them.
According to the CBI, the prominent names in the “South Group” include YSRCP MP Magunta Srinuvasulu Reddy, his son Raghava, and BRS leader K Kavitha.
Businessman Arun Ramachandran Pillai was also arrested by the ED on the contention that he was among the three key representatives of Kavitha.
Apart from Pillai, the two other representatives of Kavitha are said to be beauty salon chain owner Abhishek Boinpally and chartered accountant Gorantla Butchibabu.
During its probe, the ED had recorded the statement of Butchibabu, in which he had said, “There was a political understanding between K Kavitha and the chief minister (Arvind Kejriwal) and deputy chief minister (Manish Sisodia). In that process, K Kavitha also met Vijay Nair on March 19-20, 2021.”
Vijay Nair, who is also in custody, was the communications in-charge of Kejriwal’s AAP and was said to be the key link between the “South Group” and the party in power in Delhi.
As against kickbacks that were paid, the South Group secured uninhibited access and undue favours, and attained stakes in established wholesale businesses and multiple retail zones, over and above what was allowed in the policy, said the CBI charge sheet.
To recover the kickbacks, the partners of the South Group were given a 65 percent stake in IndoSpirits in collusion with Sameer Mahendru, the owner of the firm.
(With PTI inputs)
