Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, for the sixth time, skipped the Enforcement Directorate’s summons asking him to appear before it for enquiry in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.
AAP said that the federal agency’s summons are “illegal”, adding that the matter of their “validity” is in the Court now. “Instead of sending repeated summons, the ED should wait for the Court’s verdict,” the Kejriwal-led party said.
Earlier on Saturday, Kejriwal told a court that he wanted to appear before it in connection with an application moved by the ED in the excise policy, but couldn’t do so because of the budget session and floor test.
“I wanted to come to court but this floor test came up suddenly. Our budget session is till the first week of March. You can give me a date for after that and I will appear,” said Kejriwal who appeared before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Divya Malhotra via video conferencing.
The court accepted the Delhi chief minister’s request and posted the next hearing for March 16.
The anti-corruption agency, on February 14, sent a sixth summons to Kejriwal in connection with the Delhi excise policy scam, asking him to appear before it at its headquarters on February 19.
PREVIOUS SUMMONS TO ARVIND KEJRIWAL
FIRST SUMMONS: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate for the first time on October 30, 2023. The agency asked him to appear before the federal agency for questioning in connection with the alleged irregularities in the now-scraped excise policy.
However, he skipped the summons after sending a response to the central agency. He has said that the summon issued to him was illegal, politically motivated and given on request of BJP.
SECOND SUMMONS: The AAP chief skipped the anti-corruption agency’s second summons as well, calling them “illegal”, “politically motivated”, adding that they “should be withdrawn”.
The AAP chief decided to go to a Vipassana session — meditation retreat — and gave a skip to the ED summons again.
Kejriwal had said that the timing at which he was summoned “strengthened” his belief that they are not based on any “objective criteria” but purely for “propaganda”.
THIRD SUMMONS: The Enforcement Directorate sent the third summons to the Delhi chief minister on December 22, asking him to appear before it on January 3.
But again, the AAP chief skipped the summons. This time, Kejriwal cited his busy schedule due to Rajya Sabha elections and Republic Day celebrations as one of the reasons for not appearing before the probe agency.
“It is a matter of concern that despite my comprehensive response(s) bringing to your notice critical dimensions and legal objections involved in issuing summons to me in person’, the ED had ‘chosen not to respond’,” he stated.
FOURTH SUMMONS: The ED’s fourth summons to Kejriwal was issued on January 13. It asked him to depose before the federal agency on January 18. However, the Delhi CM — along with Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and AAP MPs Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak — left for three-day visit to Goa on January 18, the day he was supposed to appear before the agency.
FIFTH SUMMONS: The Delhi CM was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate for the fifth time on January 31, asking him to appear before it on February 2.
However, he skipped the summons, prompting the agency to file a fresh complaint against him for non-compliance with its summons.
In its complaint, the ED claimed that in order to unearth the role of others, including Kejriwal, and to trace further proceeds of crime, further investigation is ongoing for which he was summoned for probe on numerous occasions.
It added that from the replies given by Kejriwal, it is manifest that his intention was to “disobey the summons and to create a false pretext to camouflage” such intention of disobedience of summons.
Comments
0 comment