Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday skipped the Enforcement Directorate's 7th summons for questioning in the excise policy-linked money laundering case.
Earlier, the ED 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.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) once again termed the ED summons as illegal, saying the matter of the validity of ED summons is now in court and the ED itself went to court.
Instead of sending summons again and again, ED should wait for the court's decision, it added.
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.
This was the 7th summons in this case by the ED to the former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer. He was earlier called on dates like 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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