Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) asking to take back the summons to him in the liquor policy case and questioned the legality of the notice.
Kejriwal was scheduled to appear before the ED today as part of the ongoing investigation into the Delhi excise policy case, but skipped the summons.
In a letter to the ED, Kejriwal called for the withdrawal of the notice and questioned its legal basis.
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The ED’s notice is “illegal and politically motivated, sent at the behest of the BJP,” Kejriwal said in the letter, asking the same central probe agency that arrested his former deputy Manish Sisodia to “take back the notice immediately”.
In the letter, Kejriwal further said, “Notice was sent to ensure that I am unable to go for election campaigning in four states. ED should withdraw the notice immediately.”
Responding to Kejriwal’s letter to the ED, the BJP said the AAP has indulged in corruption and its top leaders should answer questions raised by the court and probe agencies.
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“Arvind Kejriwal’s claim that it is politically motivated makes no sense. The Supreme Court denied bail to Manish Sisodia, and cited a tentatively established money trail of ₹ 338 crore. Even the Congress has accused the Kejriwal government of corruption. Is Kejriwal saying all of them are politically motivated?” BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla told the media today.
Meanwhile, Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said the ED is acting without any regard to the rule of law as it has been summoning anybody it wants without court oversight.
“Even during colonial times, the police needed a warrant to search people because it was understood that if cops are allowed to raid people without court warrant, then it would turn into dadagiri (bullying). Today, the ED doesn’t use warrants. Its officers decide whose house to raid,” Mr Bharadwaj, the AAP MLA from south Delhi’s Greater Kailash, said in a video statement.
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Earlier this year in April, Kejriwal was summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the same case. However, he was not named as an accused in the initial First Information Report (FIR) filed by the CBI on August 17 last year.
If arrested, Kejriwal will be the third senior leader from the AAP to be taken into custody in the liquor policy case. Manish Sisodia was arrested in February and the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh met the same fate last month. Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain had also been arrested in a separate money laundering case last year.
(With inputs from ANI)