Arvind Kejriwal ignores the seventh summons; AAP urges ED to wait for the court’s ruling

Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, declined the seventh summons from the Enforcement Directorate to appear in court in the money laundering case involving excise policies on Monday.

After Kejriwal failed to show up for the sixth summons to be questioned in a money laundering case, the ED had already given him a seventh summons on February 22.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has again called the ED summons illegitimate, claiming that the ED itself appeared in court and that the legitimacy of the ED summons is now being debated.

It also said that ED need to await the court’s ruling rather than continuously issue summonses.

In response to an ED complaint alleging that Kejriwal disregarded an ED summons in this matter, a Delhi court last week ordered Kejriwal to appear before it on February 17. The court observed that the AAP head was “legally bound” to comply.

This was the former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer’s seventh summons in this matter from the ED. Earlier this year on February 19, February 2, January 18 and January 3; in 2023 on December 21 and November 2; and in 2023 on February 19 and February 2.

What is the situation?
The Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021–22, which granted licenses to liquor sellers, is said by the investigative agencies to have encouraged cartelization and favored particular dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it—a claim that the AAP has consistently denied. After Delhi LG V K Saxena suggested in July 2022 that the CBI look into purported anomalies and shortcomings in the strategy’s execution, the scheme was abandoned. Following the CBI, the ED also filed a case in relation to the subject under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).