The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a fifth summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been evading appearing before investigators, asking him to join probe reportedly on Friday in the excise policy case.
AAP’s chief national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar confirmed Kejriwal has received an ED summons and said the party’s legal team is going through it and will decide what to do as per law. Previous summons, however, were illegal, she added, echoing what Kejriwal has been stating in his defence of not appearing before the anti-money laundering agency. The AAP had earlier charged that ED was issuing summons to arrest the Delhi CM ahead of Lok Sabha elections. Kejriwal was questioned by the CBI, on whose FIR the ED began a money laundering investigation into the liqourgate, in April 2023.
The ED is probing Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 under which licences were given to liquor traders that lead to cartelisation and favoured certain businessmen who allegedly paid bribes in lieu of benefits they got.
The BJP, however, demanded that Kejriwal holding a constitutional post should respond to summon from the ED. “Our advice to Kejriwal is that he should appear for questioning before the ED,” Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.