Arvind Kejriwal Likely to Skip ED Summons Again for Fifth Time

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is unlikely to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on Friday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the now-scraped Delhi excise policy.

The financial probe agency on Wednesday issued the fifth summons to Mr Kejriwal after he skipped four earlier summonses issued by the ED over the last four months.

Though the AAP remained tight-lipped about whether the AAP supremo will appear before the probe agency, sources in the party said that he will likely skip the summons this time too. The AAP has maintained that its legal team is studying the summons issued to Mr Kejriwal in connection with the excise policy-linked money laundering case.

Mr Kejriwal is scheduled to participate in a protest along with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann outside the BJP headquarters on Friday against the alleged "cheating" in the Chandigarh mayoral polls.

The AAP supremo has so far skipped four ED summonses -- November 2 and December 21, last year, and January 3 and January 18. He termed these notices "illegal" and "politically motivated".

The ED has mentioned Mr Kejriwal's name multiple times in its chargesheets filed in the case. The agency claims that the accused were in touch with the Delhi chief minister regarding the preparation of the now-scrapped excise policy.

It is alleged that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licenses 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. Delhi lieutenant-governor V.K. Saxena recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe, following which the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, along with communications in-charge of the party Vijay Nair and some businessmen, have been arrested in this case by the ED till now.

The Central Financial Probe agency's chargesheet claims that the AAP used "proceeds of crime" of about Rs 45 crores in its Goa election campaign.