Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday skipped for the third time the summons issued by the ED in the Delhi excise policy case with the AAP alleging that the repeated notices were part of a conspiracy to arrest him to stop him from campaigning in the Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP claimed Kejriwal did not want the truth to come out.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), however, asserted Kejriwal was ready to cooperate with the agency but claimed the summonses were sent with the intention of arresting him.
"Why has the notice been sent right before elections? The notice is an attempt to stop Kejriwal from campaigning in elections," the party alleged.
AAP leader and Delhi minister Atishi called the summons a "political" vendetta and said the ED has not responded to Kejriwal's repeated written requests seeking clarity on why he was being called for questioning.
"Arvind Kejriwal has repeatedly asked the ED to tell in what capacity is he being summoned. He has also asked the ED to send all the concerned inquiries in the form of a questionnaire which will be answered duly," she said, adding that the AAP is not afraid of "such summons".
"The ED and the CBI have become a political tool for the BJP to attack the opposition leaders," she said.
Corroborating Atishi's views, Delhi minister and AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj questioned the timing of the ED summons.
"The ED has still not answered in what capacity is he (Kejriwal) being summoned -- as a witness or an accused," Bharadwaj said while addressing a press conference here.
"The entire excise policy case is political and an attempt to stop Kejriwal from campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls. The BJP-led Centre has hatched a conspiracy to get him arrested," he added.
Bharadwaj said former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who has been in jail for nearly a year, will be proven innocent sooner or later.
He also claimed that the threat of arrests and inquiries by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation only looms over the opposition leaders while those from the BJP don't face any action in cases against them.
AAP Delhi state convener Gopal Rai said they were ready to cooperate if the ED legally wants answers from them but were "not bound" to answer BJP's summons.
"ED is BJP and BJP is ED. Arvind Kejriwal asked some questions to the ED (in his written reply), but they are yet to respond. Meanwhile, BJP leaders are responding on behalf of the ED. Why? It seems like BJP leaders have become the spokespersons for the ED. This is BJP's summons we are not bound to respond to them," Rai, who is also Delhi's Environment minister said.
Kejriwal was summoned on Wednesday for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with an excise policy-linked money laundering case.
This was the third ED notice to Kejriwal, also the AAP's convener, after he refused to appear before the federal agency on two earlier summonses for November 2 and December 21.
AAP's chief national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said that the BJP is only afraid of one leader -- Kejriwal.
"Unlike the BJP we are law-abiding citizens and we follow the law. But we won't bow down before BJP's propaganda," she said.
Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said the way in which Kejriwal is skipping summons, it shows that he has no faith in the country's legal system.
"Even Manish Sisodia, Vijay Nair, and Sanjay Singh have also deemed the ED summons illegal, but despite this, they are unable to secure bail. I believe he (Arvind Kejriwal) should refrain from making such remarks given his constitutional position," he said.
