Case relating to Delhi Liquor Policy: Kejriwal contests summonses from a magistrate court in Sessions Court

Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, filed a motion in the Sessions Court on Thursday to contest a summons that had been issued to him by a magistrate court based on allegations from the Enforcement Directorate (ED). He claimed that the summons was for noncompliance with the terms of the now-cancelled liquor policy case.

Kejriwal was summoned to appear before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) on March 16.

The Delhi CM had received two summonses from the ACMM court in connection with two different complaints that the ED had filed. Both summonses have been contested by the AAP convenor.

Today in the Rouse Avenue Court, Special Judge Rakesh Syal will hear the case.

Kejriwal, the national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was sued by the ED for routinely missing summonses. According to the federal agency, Kejriwal is not entitled by law to know whether he is being called as a witness or an accused in the alleged Delhi liquor excise policy scheme.

Kejriwal had already referred to the summonses against him as “illegal and politically motivated” in a letter to the ED. He said that this was an effort to keep him from running for office in the nation’s next Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

He has so far eschewed eight ED summonses. The central investigative agency filed a new complaint against him on March 7 for allegedly ignoring the previous four summonses issued to him under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Kejriwal was previously the target of an ED charge for failing to appear at the first three summonses in a money laundering case involving the now-canceled Delhi excise policy. On March 16, there will be a hearing in the matter.

According to the Delhi Chief Minister, every ED summons is unlawful. Kejriwal told the ED that he might be questioned over a video conference connection after March 12, as he was avoiding the eleventh summons.

In this investigation, the ED has already detained AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, party communications head Vijay Nair, and a few liquor merchants.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed that the AAP misused around Rs 45 crore in proceeds of crime from the now-repeated Delhi Liquor Policy during the Goa Assembly Elections.

After it was revealed that the Delhi excise policy had granted licenses to liquor sellers in a manner that encouraged cartelization and favored some dealers who had reportedly paid bribes for it, the program was abandoned. These accusations have been denied by the AAP.

The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi suggested that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) look into the anomalies in the creation and execution of the policy after it was abandoned. The ED then filed a case under the PMLA after that.