‘Should wait for court's judgment’: Kejriwal to ED on skipping summon in Delhi excise policy case

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Monday skipped the sixth summon issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the excise policy-linked money laundering case and said that he is cooperating with the probe agency.

He further said that the probe agency should wait for the court’s judgement before issuing any fresh summon.

“We are giving them replies as per the law. Now, they have filed a case. ED should wait for the court’s judgement before issuing any fresh summon,” Kejriwal said to the reporters.

The ED sources claimed that the probe agency would issue fresh summons to the AAP supremo. The agency has filed a complaint under section 174 of IPC against Kejriwal for intentionally disobeying the first three summons issued to him. A local court has prima facie held the AAP convenor guilty of “disobeying” the earlier notices issued to him in the excise policy case, warranting the seventh summons.

A Delhi court last week had granted exemption to Kejriwal from appearing for the day in connection with the complaint filed by the ED for disobeying its summons in connection with scam case. The court posted the matter for March 16 and Kejriwal’s counsel assured the court of his physical appearance that day.

Kejriwal’s name has appeared several times in charge sheets filed by the ED in the case. The agency has said that the accused were in touch with Kejriwal regarding the preparation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.

AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh apart from communications in-charge of the party Vijay Nair have been arrested in this case by the ED till now.

It is alleged that the Delhi government’s excise policy to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge repeatedly refuted by the AAP.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal claimed that a “serious constitutional crisis” has arisen in Delhi due to officers’ unwillingness to work because of alleged “threats and pressure” from the BJP.

He claimed that officers have alleged that the officers are being threatened to block the one-time settlement scheme for correcting water bills because of pressure from the BJP. If they don’t do so, they would be suspended and arrested by the ED and CBI.

“The officers have alleged that they were threatened of being suspended and arrested by the ED and CBI if they took this scheme (one-time settlement scheme for water bills) to the Cabinet. This is a constitutional crisis when officers are refusing to bring proposals to the Cabinet. Today, discussions on this matter were held, and the entire (Assembly) House has urged the L-G for his intervention in this,” he said.

He has appealed to Lt Governor VK Saxena to call the officers for clearance of the scheme and added that 10.5 lakh families will benefit from this “good scheme”.

(With inputs from PTI, ANI)

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