Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate to be questioned regarding the money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy that was scrapped. On Thursday, December 21, he has been asked to appear before the agency. Arvind Kejriwal has received two summons from the Enforcement Directorate over the same case.
Arvind Kejriwal was summoned by the financial watchdog to appear before it on 2nd November as well. The head of the Aam Aadmi Party, however, had ignored the summons, claiming it was unlawful and intended for political purposes.
Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, two of Arvind Kejriwal’s party leaders, were both taken into custody by the central investigative agencies concerning the same case. In April of this year, the CBI also questioned Arvind Kejriwal regarding the purported liquor scam.
After being questioned for more than nine hours at the CBI headquarters in Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal spoke to the media and said the investigation team had asked him 56 questions. “CBI questioning was conducted for 9.5 hours. I answered all the questions. The entire alleged liquor scam is false and bad politics. AAP is ‘kattar imaandaar party’. They want to finish AAP but the country’s people are with us,” Kejriwal had said.
It may be noted that Kejriwal was summoned by the federal agency to appear before it on November 2. However, the CM skipped the summons and left for Madhya Pradesh later in the day to hold a roadshow in Singrauli.
Terming the summons ‘illegal’, Kejriwal responded to the summons by ED by saying that he would not be appearing for the questioning as he had other events scheduled. He had claimed that he is a star campaigner with state elections coming up and therefore, he has other commitments which would not allow him to attend the summons.
Arvind Kejriwal also added that the summons was “motivated and issued for extraneous considerations” and asked ED to withdraw it.
The case against the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi Liquor scam became stronger after the Supreme Court denied bail to AAP leader and former deputy CM of Delhi Manish Sisodia. While denying bail, the apex court noted that a money trail of Rs 338 crore has been tentatively established in the case.
The liquor policy for 2021-22 was put into effect by the Delhi administration on 17th November 2021, however, it was cancelled at the end of September 2022 due to accusations of corruption. According to the agencies, the new regulation led to monopolisation and gave economic advantages to people who weren’t eligible for liquor licenses.
