ED issues fresh summons to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in excise policy case

This is the second summons issued to the Aam Aadmi Party chief by the ED in the case. The first one was issued in October, asking him to appear for questioning on November 2. He, however, did not appear and instead wrote a letter to the ED Assistant Director, calling the summons politically motivated. He then left the city to lead a road show in Madhya Pradesh as part of the Assembly election campaign.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP and national general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak said Monday that legal opinion regarding the fresh notice is being taken. “It is known that Arvind Kejriwal ji is supposed to go for Vipassana. These things are decided months in advance. A lawyer is going through the notice and a decision will be taken soon,” he said.

AAP had announced on Saturday that the Chief Minister would be attending the meditation session.

Pathak also called the excise policy case “completely fake”. “Anyone who speaks out or asks questions of PM Narendra Modi is either suspended or arrested. Modi ji hates Kejriwal the most and is scared of him and his politics. The people who join the BJP get a clean chit. If Sanjay Singh, Manish Sisodia or Satyendar Jain join the BJP today, their names will be cleared. All this is a result of dirty politics,” he said, referring to party leaders who have been arrested so far by central agencies.

Singh and Sisodia have been arrested in connection with the excise policy cases.

Both the CBI and ED have registered separate cases in connection with the now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22, which allegedly favoured certain dealers in return for bribes. In April this year, the CBI questioned Kejriwal in connection with its case.

In its preliminary complaint – akin to a chargesheet – filed in a Delhi court in January last year, the ED had said that Kejriwal allegedly spoke to another accused in the case – Sameer Mahendru – on a video call and asked him to continue working with co-accused Vijay Nair, AAP’s communication in-charge, referring to him as “his boy”.

In response to the summons issued to him by ED for questioning in November, Kejriwal wrote, “… please recall the said summons, which, to say the least, is vague and motivated and, I am advised, unsustainable in law.”

Kejriwal alleged in his letter that the summons were issued at the behest of the BJP and said it was unclear in which capacity he was being summoned – “as a witness or a suspect”. “It (the summons) does not specify whether I am being summoned as an individual or in my official capacity as Chief Minister of Delhi or as National Convenor of AAP and appears to be in the nature of a fishing and roving inquiry,” he wrote.

On Monday, the Chief Minister met his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee. Calling the meeting a “courtesy visit”, he said they discussed issues of national politics as well. Later in the day, he met former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena (UBT) members at his Civil Lines home. Sources said the ED summons were also discussed during the meeting.