ED summons to Kejriwal: Enforcement Directorate has issued ninth summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the liquor policy case. This comes a day after Kejriwal appeared in a Delhi court and was granted bail over non-compliance of the ED summons for probe into the matter. The Delhi Chief Minister has so far skipped all of the summons issued to him, dubbing them “politically motivated and illegal”.
ED had moved the court against Kejriwal’s non-compliance of the summons. The AAP leader appeared before Rouse Avenue Court on Saturday (March 16) and was granted bail on personal bond of Rs 15,000.
AAP alleges summons in Delhi Jal Board case
Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday (March 17) alleged that the ED has issued summons to Kejriwal in another case related to Delhi Jal Board. AAP Minister alleged that the BJP wants to arrest Kejriwal ahead of the Lok Sabha elections to stop him from campaigning for the polls.
“The BJP has nothing to do with the investigation. PM Modi only wants to arrest Kejriwal ahead of Lok Sabha elections. This is the agenda of the BJP, PM Modi and ED and CBI. Within hours of the hearing in the court, ED issued a summons to him by evening. They sent summons on another case related to the Delhi Jal Board which is not known to anyone. This is a 100 per cent fake case. ED and CBI have become two goons of PM Modi,” she alleged.
What happened in the court?
Kejriwal’s lawyer Ramesh Gupta requested the court to allow Kejriwal to leave and continue the arguments. ED did not object to the request. The court listed the matter for next hearing on April 1.
The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Divya Malhotra also allowed Kejriwal to leave the courtroom. “Offence being bailable, accused Arvind Kejriwal is admitted to bail,” it said.
The court further directed the ED to hand over documents related to the complaints to Kejriwal.
This comes after a Delhi court on Friday rejected Arvind Kejriwal’s plea to stay summons on complaints filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and asked the Delhi Chief Minister to appear before it on Saturday.
Kejriwal had challenged the summons issued by the Magistrate court after taking cognizance of two complaints filed by the ED for avoidance of summons issued to him.
The Delhi CM had moved the sessions court against the order passed by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Divya Malhotra asking him to appear before her on March 16.
The Enforcement Directorate filed two complaints before the magisterial court seeking Kejriwal’s prosecution for skipping multiple summonses issued to him in the case.
The latest complaint pertains to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor not honouring summonses no.4 to 8 sent by the federal probe agency under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), ED said.
The ED had earlier moved the magisterial court seeking Kejriwal’s prosecution for not attending the first three summonses issued to him in the money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.