Delhi excise policy case: Delhi Rouse Avenue Court issued a summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday to appear physically on March 16 after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a fresh complaint for allegedly evading its summonses in the money laundering case.
On Wednesday, the ED filed a fresh complaint before the Delhi court seeking the prosecution of Kejriwal for skipping multiple summonses issued to him in a money laundering case.
The belated complaint pertains to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor not honouring summonses no. 4 to 8 sent by the federal probe agency under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), PTI reported citing sources.
Kejriwal hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on X (formerly Twitter), alleging that opposition leaders were being “forced” to join the BJP by “harassing” them through the ED.
He said if he joined the BJP, the notices being sent to him would discontinue.
The ED had earlier moved a local court seeking Kejriwal’s prosecution for not attending the first three summonses issued to him in the money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.
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Kejriwal has called all the ED summonses “illegal”. He had informed the agency last time that he could be questioned via a videoconferencing link after March 12.
“We have not done anything wrong nor are we trying to hide,” he had said at a press conference on March 4, the day he was asked to join the probe according to the ED’s eighth summons.
Delhi Excise Policy case complaint
The ED has filed the fresh complaint under Section 174 (non-attendance in obedience to an order from a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Section 63(4) of the PMLA that speaks about “a person who intentionally disobeys any direction” along with sections 190(1)(a) (receiving a complaint of facts which constitute such offence) and 200 (evidence of witnesses on oath) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for non-attendance in compliance of Section 50 (powers of authorities regarding summons, production of documents and to give evidence, etc.) of the PMLA.
Arvind Kejriwal’s name has been mentioned multiple times in charge sheets filed by the ED in the excise policy case. The agency has said that the accused were in touch with Kejriwal regarding preparing the excise policy for 2021-22.
So far, the ED has arrested AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, party communications in-charge Vijay Nair, and some liquor businessmen in this case.
The ED had claimed in its charge sheet that the AAP used “proceeds of crime” to the tune of about ₹45 crore in its Goa assembly polls campaign.
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(With Inputs from PTI)
