New Delhi:

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wants to join the investigations of the Enforcement Directorate and cooperate with the agency but has appealed to the high court that coercive action not be taken against him, Delhi minister Atishi said today.

Atishi said that Arvind Kejriwal has approached the Delhi High Court, alleging that the ED wanted to arrest him.

“Delhi CM Kejriwal wants to join the ED investigation and cooperate with the agency. But, we believe that the ED is not an independent agency. It does not want to conduct investigation. It is a political tool of the BJP,” Atishi claimed.

“The ED wants to arrest Arvind Kejriwal by summoning him. If the intentions of the ED are clear, the agency should say in the court that Arvind Kejriwal will not be arrested by it,” she said.

The probe agency’s aim is to arrest Arvind Kejriwal and stop him from campaigning for Lok Sabha polls, the Delhi minister alleged.

Arvind Kejriwal has so far skipped multiple summonses regarding a money laundering probe linked to an alleged excise policy scam.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday moved the Delhi High Court challenging the summons issued to him by the Enforcement Directorate in an excise policy-linked money laundering case.

The petition of the AAP national convenor, who has been asked to appear before the agency on March 21, is listed for hearing on Wednesday before a bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain.

He has moved the court against the latest summons, the ninth issued by the ED asking him to appearing before it for questioning under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Arvind Kejriwal has repeatedly refused to appear in response to these summonses, calling them illegal.

The case pertains to alleged corruption in formulating and executing the city government’s excise policy for 2021-22, which was later scrapped.

Following a recommendation by Lt Governor VK Saxena, the CBI registered an FIR over alleged corruption which subsequently resulted in the money laundering probe.

The agencies have claimed that irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours were extended to licence holders.

AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh are in judicial custody in the case.

Arvind Kejriwal’s name has been mentioned multiple times in the charge sheets filed by the ED in the excise policy case. The agency has alleged that the accused were in touch with Arvind Kejriwal for formulating the excise policy that resulted in undue benefits for them in return for which they paid kickbacks to the Aam Aadmi Party.

A Delhi court had on Saturday granted bail to Arvind Kejriwal on two complaints filed by the ED against him for skipping six of the previous eight summonses in the money laundering case.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has received two fresh summonses from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), including one in the Delhi liquor policy case, his cabinet colleague Atishi said today. The second notice is in connection with a “false” case linked to the Delhi Jal Board, the senior AAP leader said.

“Nobody knows what this DJB (Delhi Jal Board) case is about. This seems to be a backup plan to arrest Kejriwal anyhow and stop him from campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls,” she told reporters.

Mr Kejriwal has been asked to depose before the agency on Monday in the Delhi Jal Board case and on Thursday in the liquor policy case.

He has skipped eight summonses in the liquor policy case so far, calling them illegal. A day earlier, a Delhi court granted him bail for skipping six of the eight ED summonses.

Reacting to the ninth summons in the liquor policy case, a BJP leader said Mr Kejriwal is running away from the law and he should answer the questions posed by the agency.

“The ED has issued summons as per law. But Delhi Chief Minister is running away from it and only he knows why. He has a habit of playing the victim card,” said Delhi BJP leader Harish Khurrana.

The Delhi Chief Minister received the summons hours after the Lok Sabha election dates were announced, said Atishi, accusing the BJP of using the ED and the CBI to target their political opponents.

The ED is probing an alleged money laundering angle in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22, which allegedly benefited certain liquor dealers. The AAP has denied the allegations.

BRS leader K Kavitha was arrested in the case yesterday.

In the Delhi Jal Board case, the central agency has alleged that bribe money generated from a tender issued by the Delhi government was “passed on” as electoral funds to the AAP.

As part of the probe, the ED raided Mr Kejriwal’s personal assistant Bibhav Kumar, AAP MP ND Gupta, former DJB member Shalabh Kumar, chartered accountant Pankaj Mangal in February.

Retired Chief Engineer Jagdish Kumar Arora and contractor Anil Kumar Aggarwal were arrested in the bribery case in January.

According to a CBI FIR, Mr Arora had awarded a DJB contract to a company, NKG Infrastructure Ltd, for Rs 38 crore even though the company “did not meet” the technical eligibility criteria.

New Delhi:

The Enforcement Directorate has issued fresh summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for questioning on March 21 in the excise policy linked money laundering case, official sources said Sunday.

The 55-year-old national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been asked to depose at the central agency’s office in central Delhi.

The ninth summons have been issued so that Kejriwal’s statement can be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.

The CM has repeatedly refused to appear in response to these summons, calling them illegal.

A Delhi court on Saturday had granted bail to Kejriwal on two complaints filed by the agency against him for skipping six of the previous eight summons in this case.

The agency arrested BRS leader K Kavitha in this case two days back.

New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been granted bail by Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court against arrest for skipping probe agency summons in the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. He was asked to furnish a personal bond of Rs 15,000 and a security bond of Rs 1 lakh for the bail.

The Delhi Chief Minister violated Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code – which deals with disobeying a legal order to be at a certain place in person or by agent – when he skipped the Enforcement Directorate’s repeated summons in the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

The court summoned the AAP chief after the Enforcement Directorate, which wants to question Mr Kejriwal in connection with the Delhi excise policy case, told the court that the Chief Minister skipped eight summons issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Arvind Kejriwal will not have to appear in person for the next hearing of the case on April 1.

Skipping the ED summons, Mr Kejriwal accused the Narendra Modi government of using central agencies to target Opposition leaders.

The ED’s latest summons came late in February and asked the Chief Minister to appear for questioning on March 4. However, Mr Kejriwal, who skipped the “illegal” summons, said he would appear only through video-conferencing.

But the financial probe agency insisted he appears physically and said there is no provision for questioning virtually.

Top AAP leaders – former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh – have been arrested by the ED in a money laundering case relating to Delhi’s now-scrapped excise policy.

Mr Kejriwal’s name cropped up multiple times in the ED’s charge sheets. The agency said that the accused in the case were in touch with the Chief Minister when the excise policy was being drafted.

New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today responded to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) eighth summons related to the money laundering probe concerning irregularities in the Delhi excise policy case. Despite deeming the summons as “illegal”, Mr Kejriwal expressed his willingness to answer the probe agency’s questions, proposing a date after March 12.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said Mr Kejriwal will attend the hearing through video conferencing. This move comes after the ED issued its eighth summons on February 27, setting March 4 as the scheduled date for Mr Kejriwal to appear at the agency’s headquarters.

The ongoing probe revolves around alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi excise policy (2021-22). The ED seeks Mr Kejriwal’s statement on matters such as policy formulation and allegations of bribery.

Mr Kejriwal has previously skipped seven summonses issued by the ED, labeling them as “illegal and politically motivated.” The AAP, in a statement, urged the ED to refrain from sending further summonses and await the court’s decision.

The excise policy, introduced to bring an overhaul to the national capital’s liquor business, promised a more modern shopping experience with discounts and offers. However, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena’s order to investigate alleged irregularities prompted the policy’s cancellation. The AAP accuses Mr Saxena’s predecessor, Anil Baijal, of making last-minute changes that adversely affected the policy’s revenue expectations.

Two prominent AAP leaders, Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, are already under judicial custody in connection with the case. Mr Sisodia, the former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26 last year, while Mr Singh, a Rajya Sabha member, was arrested by the ED on October 5.