The Enforcement Directorate has issued its eighth summon to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in relation to the investigation concerning financial misconduct linked to purported irregularities in the Delhi excise policy for 2021-22.
The enforcement has ordered Kejriwal to appear before it on March 4. -On all the past 7 occasions, Kejriwal has skipped the summons. He is maintaining his stance that the ED summons were “illegal and politically motivated.”
Kejriwal, accompanied by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lawmakers, visited the Raj Ghat memorial dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi on Monday to commemorate one year since his former deputy Manish Sisodia’s arrest in the same case.
Kejriwal asserted that the summonses were a tactic aimed at pressuring him to withdraw from the Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). “If the court says go, then I will go [for questioning]…They want us to break the alliance. Their message is that we should quit the alliance.” Kejriwal affirmed his commitment to maintaining the alliance and emphasized that he would not yield to such pressures.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeks to obtain Kejriwal’s testimony regarding the excise policy case, focusing on matters such as policy formulation, pre-finalization meetings, and allegations of potential bribery. During one of his previous absences, Kejriwal denounced the summons as “unlawful,” asserting his willingness to cooperate but alleging that the agency’s objective was to detain him and disrupt his election campaigning.
“These notices are being sent as part of a political conspiracy,” Kejriwal had stated after skipping the fifth notice.
The case under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is rooted in a First Information Report (FIR) alleging numerous irregularities in the development and execution of the Delhi Excise Policy (2021-22) by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Following allegations of corruption, the policy was retracted.
In its sixth charge sheet, filed on December 2, 2023, the ED named AAP leader Sanjay Singh and his purported associate Sarvesh Mishra, claiming that the AAP utilized kickbacks totaling Rs 45 crore generated through the policy as part of its assembly elections campaign in Goa in 2022.
Two senior AAP leaders, Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, are currently in judicial custody in connection with the case. Sisodia, the former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, was apprehended by the CBI on February 26 after multiple rounds of interrogation, while Singh, a Rajya Sabha member, was arrested by the ED on October 5.
