The Enforcement Directorate has issued a fresh summons to AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for questioning for January 3 in the excise policy-linked money laundering investigation. According to sources, this is the third notice to Kejriwal, after he refused to appear before the ED on two earlier summons for November 2 and December 21. The chief minister is currently undertaking a Vipassana meditation course in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab for 10 days. If the AAP chief skips the summons for a third time on January 3, the ED will have the option of seeking a non-bailable warrant against him.
While refusing to depose on the second summons, Kejriwal wrote to the investigating officer of the case that the notice issued against him for personal appearance was "not in consonance with the law" and it should be withdrawn.
In a letter to the ED on Wednesday before leaving for a 10-day Vipassana meditation course, Kejriwal said the summons were issued to him “at the behest of political rivals who wish to silence the voice of opposition to the ruling dispensation at the Centre to create sensational news in the final few months leading up to the parliamentary election in early to mid-2024”. Kejriwal denounced the ED’s summons on Thursday, branding it as "illegal" and "politically motivated," reiterating his commitment to transparency. Kejriwal asserted that he has nothing to hide, expressing his compliance with legal summons but insisted that the ED's move was unjust, echoing a similar sentiment from a previous summons.
. “I am ready to accept every legal summon. However, this ED summon is also illegal and politically motivated like the previous summons,” Kejriwal said.
“Summon should be withdrawn. I have spent my life with honesty and transparency. I have nothing to hide,” Kejriwal added. Earlier, Kejriwal was summoned by the ED on November 2 but he skipped the questioning alleging the notice was illegal and politically motivated.
Kejriwal sent his six pages reply to the ED on Wednesday in which he said the summons do not specify whether he was being called as "a witness or a suspect" or as the "chief minister, Delhi or the Aam Aadmi Party's national convener". He said the fresh summons -- issued on December 18 -- should be revoked, withdrawn, and recalled.
"The timing of your summons leaves much to desire and strengthens my belief that the summons being sent to me are not based upon any objective or rational yardstick but for extraneous considerations at the behest of political rivals who wish to silence the voice of opposition to the ruling dispensation at the Centre to create sensational news in the final few months leading up to the Parliamentary elections in early to mid 2024," read the reply. "Your summons appears to be a fishing and roving enquiry. In similar circumstances, where individuals are neither informed about the case details nor the capacity in which they are being summoned by the Enforcement Directorate, High courts have declared such summons of Enforcement Directorate invalid and quashed the summons," the reply said.
The AAP national convener stressed that he is "holding a sensitive constitutional post as an elected leader and incumbent Chief Minister of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi".
