ED issues eighth summons to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has issued the eighth summons to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for questioning on March 4 in the ongoing probe into an excise policy-linked money laundering case.

The probe agency move came after Mr Kejriwal skipped the seventh summons on Monday, saying that he would appear before the agency if a court ordered him to do so.

The Central financial probe agency has approached a local court in the national capital against Mr Kejriwal for skipping its summonses. The court has listed this matter for further hearing on March 16.

The ED, while issuing the eighth summons, rejected the contention that a fresh notice for Mr Kejriwal's attendance was wrong, as the matter was sub-judice.

The agency believes that the local court has prima facie held the Delhi chief minister guilty of "disobeying" the earlier notices issued to him in this case, warranting the eighth summons.

Mr Kejriwal's name has been mentioned multiple times in the chargesheets filed by the ED in the case. The agency has said that the accused were in touch with him regarding the preparation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 and he and his party have alleged that the summonses issued by the ED were "illegal".

"They want us to break the alliance. Their message basically is that we should quit the alliance," Mr Kejriwal said on Monday, claiming there were informal messages to that effect from different quarters.

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

In its chargesheet, the ED has claimed that the AAP used "proceeds of crime" to the tune of about '45 crores in its Goa election campaign.

The agency is also expected to file a fresh supplementary chargesheet in the case and may name the AAP as a "beneficiary" of the alleged kickbacks that were generated through the excise policy.

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 Delhi lieutenant-governor V.K. Saxena recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).