Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday decided to skip the sixth summons issued to him by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case in connection with the now scrapped Delhi excise policy.

In a statement, the AAP reiterated that the summonses sent to Kejriwal were “illegal” and said the issue was “now in court”.

“The ED should wait for court’s decision instead of repeatedly sending summonses to Delhi CM Kejriwal,” AAP stated, PTI reported.

On February 14, the probe agency issued its sixth summons to Kejriwal, asking him to appear before it on February 19.

Also Read: Arvind Kejriwal skips ED summons again, draws condemnation from BJP and Congress alike

The AAP supremo has skipped all the ED summonses so far, alleging that they were “illegal” and “politically motivated”. The earlier five were issued on February 2, January 18, January 3, December 22, 2023 and November 2, 2023.

On February 17, a Delhi court allowed Kejriwal to appear before it physically on March 16 in connection with the ED’s recent complaint against him for skipping five summonses in the excise policy case, after he cited a debate on a trust motion in the House.

Addressing the court via video conferencing, the Chief Minister said that due to the confidence motion discussion in the Delhi Assembly and the Budget session slated to end on March 1, he could not physically appear before the court. The AAP supremo said he would be available to appear after March 1.

On February 7, Kejriwal was asked to appear before the court after the ED had filed the complaint against him on February 3 for not complying with the previous summonses issued to him in the liquor policy case. The court said the AAP supremo was “legally bound” to comply.

Also Read: Delhi excise policy case: Arvind Kejriwal skips third Enforcement Directorate summons

The complaint was filed under Section 174 of the IPC for non-attendance in obedience to an order from a public servant and Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

On the repeated ED summonses, Kejriwal has maintained that they were “illegal attempts” to arrest him and aimed at preventing him from campaigning for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP, on the other hand, has alleged that Kejriwal was trying to use the Budget session of the Delhi assembly “as his weapon to escape the investigation of the liquor scam”.

(With inputs from PTI)