Arvind Kejriwal Skips Summons, Tells Probe Agency To "Take Back Notice"

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will not go to the Enforcement Directorate's office today for giving his statement on the Delhi liquor policy case, sources said. Mr Kejriwal was scheduled to appear before the central probe agency's Delhi office at 11 am, but he wrote a letter to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) asking to take back the summons to him, calling it "illegal and politically motivated".

The ED is likely to issue fresh summons to Mr Kejriwal, who is going to Madhya Pradesh to campaign for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ahead of the state election.

A person can skip ED summons a maximum of three times, after which the ED can get a non-bailable warrant. The ED can also issue summons under the stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act, or PMLA. 

Mr Kejriwal, meantime, has the option to request for a pre-arrest bail and challenge the summons in court.

The ED's notice is "illegal and politically motivated, sent at the behest of the BJP," Mr Kejriwal said in the letter, asking the same central probe agency that arrested his former deputy Manish Sisodia to "take back the notice immediately".

"The said summons does not specify whether I am being summoned as an individual or in my official capacity as Chief Minister of Delhi or as National Convenor of AAP and appears to be in the nature of a fishing and roving inquiry," Mr Kejriwal said in the two-page letter to the ED. 

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also alleged the centre wants to arrest Mr Kejriwal in a politically motivated case.

The ED's case against the AAP leaders got more wind in the sails after the Supreme Court rejected Mr Sisodia's bail request over a money trail of Rs 338 crore, which the court said has been tentatively established.

This money is said to be the earnings of private parties who got liquor licence under the now-scrapped policy. The investigators consider the earnings as proceeds of crime.

Responding to Mr Kejriwal's letter to the ED, the BJP said the AAP has indulged in corruption and its top leaders should answer questions raised by the court and probe agencies.

"Arvind Kejriwal's claim that it is politically motivated makes no sense. The Supreme Court denied bail to Manish Sisodia, and cited a tentatively established money trail of Rs 338 crore. Even the Congress has accused the Kejriwal government of corruption. Is Kejriwal saying all of them are politically motivated?" BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla told reporters today.

Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said the ED is acting without any regard to the rule of law as it has been summoning anybody it wants without court oversight.

"Even during colonial times, the police needed a warrant to search people because it was understood that if cops are allowed to raid people without court warrant, then it would turn into dadagiri (bullying). Today, the ED doesn't use warrants. Its officers decide whose house to raid," Mr Bharadwaj, the AAP MLA from south Delhi's Greater Kailash, said in a video statement.

"When will the ED raid the homes of BJP leaders whose names have come up in corruption allegations? So many reports are out there," he added.

The top AAP leaders including Mr Kejriwal are accused of corruption in framing a new liquor sale policy, which was scrapped after the Delhi chief secretary flagged alleged rule violations in July 2022.

Following this report, Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to look into the matter.

If arrested, Mr Kejriwal will be the third senior leader from the AAP to be taken into custody in the liquor policy case. Mr Sisodia was arrested in February and the party's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh met the same fate last month. Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain had also been arrested in a money laundering case last year.