The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued the eighth summon to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking his presence for questioning on March 4, despite the AAP convenor being adamant in not joining the investigators till a court seized of the matter tells him to do so in the excise case.

Also read: Kejriwal skips ED summons for 7th time, demands court direction for investigation

The fresh notice from agency comes immediately after Kejriwal did not appear on Monday holding on to the pretext that the summons are illegal and are meant to arrest him before the Lok Sabha elections.

ED has approached a special PMLA court here, accusing Kejriwal of “disobeying” its summons. The ED has urged the Court to direct him to appear before them. The matter will come up for hearing on March 16. The ED had alleged that ₹100 crore bribe was paid in the Delhi excise policy irregularities case which AAP had used to fund its Goa election. The agency in one of its six chargesheets had described Kejriwal, who has not been made an accused so far, as “brainchild” of the case.

On Monday, Kejriwal launched a counter attack saying that the summon were an instrument to pressurise him to quit INDIA bloc alliance. “If the court says go, then I will go [for questioning]...They want us to break the alliance,” the Delhi CM said.

Till now, the ED, which began the money laundering probe after taking over the excise case from the CBI, has arrested former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, who completed one year behind the bar on Monday, and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh besides other Delhi government officials and businessmen.