The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday issued fresh summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. This is the fifth summon to the Aam Aadmi Party chief.
The AAP chief has previously skipped four summons from the anti-corruption agency.
PREVIOUS ED SUMMONS TO ARVIND KEJRIWAL
First Summon:
The Enforcement Directorate had issued the first summon to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on October 30, 2023. It asked him to appear before the federal agency on November 2 for questioning in connection with the alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped excise policy.
However, Kejriwal skipped the ED summon after sending a response to the central agency. He had said that the summon issued to him was illegal, politically motivated and given on request of BJP.
At the time, Kejriwal was leaving for campaign in then poll-bound Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli.
“…Being the National Convener and a star campaigner of the AAP, I am required to travel for campaigning and to provide political guidance to my field workers of AAP. As the CM of Delhi, I have governance and official commitments for which my presence is required, particularly in view of Diwali coming up…Please recall the said summons, which is to say the least is vague and motivated and unsustainable in law,” Kejriwal had said in his letter at the time.
Second Summon:
The AAP chief skipped the Enforcement Directorate’s second summon as well, saying that they are “illegal”, “politically motivated” adding that they “should be withdrawn”.
The AAP chief decided to go to a Vipassana session — meditation session — giving a skip to the ED summons for the second time.
The second summon, which asked him to appear before the anti-corruption agency on December 21, was issued to Kejriwal on December 18, 2023.
Kejriwal said that he was willing to abide by all the legal summons, provided the “illegal ones” are withdrawn. “This ED summon is also illegal like the previous summons,” Kejriwal said in his response.
Kejriwal had said that the timing at which he was summoned “strengthened” his belief that they are not based on any “objective criteria” but purely for “propaganda”.
Kejriwal had said that he was unaware of the capacity in which he has being summoned in. “I am not aware in which capacity I am being summoned – as witness or suspect, CM or AAP Convenor?” adding that, “You have chosen not to inform me or provide details of the case.”
Giving the example of Mewa Ram vs State of Rajasthan and Ors, the AAP chief said that the ED summons appear to be a “fishing and roving enquiry”.
Third Summon:
The anti-corruption agency for the third time had summoned the Delhi chief minister on December 22, asking him to appear before it on January 3.
However, the third summon was again skipped by the AAP chief. This time, in his response to the ED, Kejriwal cited his busy schedule due to Rajya Sabha elections and Republic Day celebrations as one of the reasons for not appearing before the central probe agency.
“It is a matter of concern that despite my comprehensive response(s) bringing to your notice critical dimensions and legal objections involved in issuing summons to me in person’, the ED had ‘chosen not to respond’,” he stated.
He had said that the ED had once again sent identically worded summons in the same format without giving any response to his earlier replies.
The AAP chief had said that the ED’s silence confirms his “apprehensions about certain vested interests and extraneous as well as malafide considerations prevailing over any objective, rational, fair or impartial inquiry or investigations”.
Fourth Summon:
The fourth summon issued to Kejriwal on January 13 asked him to depose before the central probe agency on January 18.
However, Kejriwal — along with Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and MPs Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak — left for a three-day visit to Goa on January 18, the day he was supposed to appear before the agency.
As per AAP’s Goa chief Amit Palekar, the senior party leaders were to meet AAP’s Goa MLAs and other state functionaries and volunteers during their visit, which came ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
DELHI EXCISE POLICY CASE
The Delhi government had implemented the excise policy in question on November 17, 2021, but scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption. According to investigating agencies, the profit margins of wholesalers were increased from five to 12 per cent under the new policy.
While agencies alleged that the new policy resulted in cartelisation and those ineligible for liquor licences were favoured for monetary benefits, the AAP-led Delhi government and Manish Sisodia have denied any wrongdoing, saying that the new policy would have led to an increase in Delhi’s revenue share.
ED had said that it wants to question the Delhi Chief Minister on the formulation of policy, meetings held before it was finalised, and allegations of bribery.
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