New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Monday issued a fresh summons to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for questioning on December 21 in the excise policy-linked money-laundering case. Soon after the summon, the AAP dubbed the excise policy case as “fake” and “bogus”, while the BJP said that the AAP supremo should join the probe without giving any excuses.
Prior to this, he was summoned to appear before the agency on November 2 but he skipped it, alleging that the notice was “vague, motivated and unsustainable in law”.
The summonses to Mr Kejriwal, who is also the national convenor of the AAP, pertain to questioning in the alleged Delhi excise policy case and for recording his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the officials said.
This comes days after Delhi government officials said that Mr Kejriwal will leave for a 10-day Vipassana meditation course at an undisclosed location from December 19.
AAP MP Sandeep Pathak said their lawyers are studying the notice. “Anybody who questions the PM gets suspended or arrested. PM Modi fears and hates Mr Kejriwal. Modiji is most scared by Kejriwal’s politics and his Delhi model of governance. Our lawyers are studying the notice and we will see what has to be done,” the AAP MP added.
Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said even last time when the ED had summoned him, the AAP supremo had sought an extension in view of the election campaign. “Now there are neither elections nor any other pressing political or administrative work, and so if he is honest then should join the probe,” he said.
AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh are among those arrested in this case by the ED, and the agency is expected to file a supplementary chargesheet in the case soon.
Earlier, Mr Kejriwal had also rubbished the contents of the ED complaint, saying it has “filed 5,000 chargesheets under the tenure of the current government.”
“How many people have been sentenced? All the cases filed by the ED are fake and they are used to topple governments or form them. ED does not file cases to eradicate corruption. They do it to buy MLAs, topple governments,” he had said.
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.
