Enforcement Directorate sends seventh summons to Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday issued the seventh summons to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case. The agency has asked him to appear before it on February 26.
Arvind Kejriwal has ignored ED’s six previous summonses. Earlier this week, AAP said Kejriwal wouldn’t appear before the agency because the summonses were illegal and that the agency should have waited for the court’s decision instead of repeatedly asking him to appear.
“We have replied to all summons from the ED. In court, the last date was February 17th and CM Arvind Kejriwal was virtually present there. The next date of hearing is March 16th. We are law-abiding people; whatever the court says, we will follow. ED should have waited for the verdict on the case. So this is a wrong summons,” AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said on Monday.
The Enforcement Directorate had moved a Delhi court against Kejriwal for skipping its summonses. The agency recently filed a fresh complaint case under sections 190 (1)(a) and 200 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 63 (4) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for non-attendance in compliance with Section 50 of PMLA.
On February 17, Kejriwal appeared before the Rouse Avenue Court via video conferencing over his alleged non-compliance with its summonses.
The Congress and BJP had slammed Kejriwal for skipping the summons.
“Whatever the intention of the ED is,… we should always be a part of the judicial process and fulfil our duty… I say that you (Arvind Kejriwal) should go to the ED and present your point to finish the matter,” said former Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit on Monday.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala had called him ‘bhagoda’ or fugitive.
“He has become ‘bhagoda’ number one. He has something to hide as the mastermind of the liquor scam…The court says that the summons are proper and you should go and attend these summons. But even then you are calling the summons illegal,” he said on Monday.
AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh have been in jail for months over similar charges.
AAP claims the Enforcement Directorate plans to arrest Kejriwal so that he can’t campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
With inputs from ANI