The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday sent the 8th summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a day after he skipped the seventh one.
Kejriwal on Monday skipped the ED's 7th summons for questioning in the excise policy-linked money laundering case.
Earlier, the probe agency sent a seventh summons to Kejriwal on February 22 after the Delhi CM did not appear before the probe agency on the sixth summons for questioning in a money laundering case. The
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had skipped all seven summons. Irked with Kejriwal's non-cooperation, the probe agency moved the court.
Kejriwal on every occasion after getting the summons termed it as illegal notice, saying the matter of the validity of the ED summons was in court.
Instead of sending summons again and again, ED should wait for the court's decision, AAP said.
A Delhi court last week had asked Kejriwal to appear before it on February 17 acting on a complaint filed by the ED for disobeying ED summons in this case and noted that prima facie the AAP chief was "legally bound" to comply.
The former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer was earlier called on dates like February 26, February 19, February 2, January 18 and January 3 this year and December 21 and November 2 in 2023.
What is the case
According to the probe agencies, the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge repeatedly refuted by the AAP. The policy was scrapped after Delhi LG V K Saxena in July, 2022, recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities and lapses in its implementation. After the CBI, the ED also registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the matter.
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