The Delhi sessions court on Friday refused to stay the summons issued by a magisterial court on the Enforcement Directorate’s complaint of non-compliance with its summonses for questioning in the Delhi excise policy case.
“The request for stay has been declined. For exemption, you can move the trial court,” special judge Rakesh Syal said while pronouncing the order, according to Live Law.
Kejriwal was asked by the ACMM court to appear before it on Saturday. His petitions against the order are listed for March 30.
In his petitions, Kejriwal challenged two orders passed by ACMM court summoning him in the criminal complaints filed by ED. The agency has alleged that Kejriwal had not complied with the summons issued to him in the money laundering case.
Kejriwal has so far been issued eight summonses in the case. ED had earlier filed a complaint case against the Chief Minister for not complying with the initial three summons issued to him. A fresh complaint was filed later alleging non compliance with the other summons.
The Delhi CM has so far evaded appearance stating that the summons issued to him were “illegal”. He had recently informed the probe agency that he could appear before it for questioning via videoconferencing after March 12. The fresh complaint was filed by ED under Section 190 (1)(a) of Cr.P.C. read with Section 200 of the Code, Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Section 63 (4) of PMLA, 2002.
As per the ED, the excise policy for 2021-22 was implemented as part of a conspiracy to give wholesale business profit of 12 percent to certain private companies, although such a stipulation was not mentioned in the minutes of meetings of Group of Ministers (GoM).
The central probe agency also claimed that there was a conspiracy that was coordinated by Vijay Nair and other individuals along with South Group to give extraordinary profit margins to wholesalers. Nair was acting on behalf of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, the agency has alleged.
(With Live Law inputs)