Excise policy case: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal appears before court via video-conferencing

Representing Kejriwal, senior advocate Ramesh Gupta moved an application, seeking the Chief Minister’s exemption from personal appearance. The counsel also said that Kejriwal may appear physically on the next date of hearing.

The matter has now been listed for March 16.

On Friday, Kejriwal had moved a motion of confidence in the Assembly , alleging a conspiracy to destabilise his AAP-led government in Delhi. The Assembly discussed the motion on Saturday.

Tabling the motion, Kejriwal said on Saturday, “A few days ago, two MLAs came to me and said that they had been approached by the BJP and were told that we are going to arrest your chief minister in a few days… That we have already contacted and convinced 21 MLAs to leave the party… We are also in touch with others.”

Speaker Ram Niwas Goel admitted the motion for a discussion at 11 am on Saturday.

In August 2022, Kejriwal had won a similar confidence vote, which he moved after accusing the BJP of trying to poach AAP MLAs under ‘Operation Lotus’.

On February 3, a day after Kejriwal skipped its summons for the fifth time, the ED had filed a complaint before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Divya Malhotra under Criminal Procedure Code sections 190 and 200 for not complying with the agency’s summons issued under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Section 50 (power to issue summons) and not joining the investigation.