The Enforcement Directorate has approached a special court in Delhi, seeking compliance from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal regarding multiple summonses issued to him.
These summonses pertain to the agency's investigation into the Delhi liquor scam, where the AAP government's excise policy is alleged to have been manipulated to benefit a group of liquor traders, resulting in significant losses to the exchequer. The court has set a hearing date for February 7, as per sources.
Following Kejriwal's failure to appear before the agency despite five summonses, the Enforcement Directorate has lodged a fresh complaint under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at the local court. Additional Solicitor General SV Raju represented the agency in seeking directions for the Delhi CM to cooperate with questioning by the ED.
In its plea before the additional chief metropolitan magistrate Divya Malhotra, ED flagged to the court “non-attendance in compliance of Section 50 of PMLA received (by the CM) by way of assignment” which can be checked. After a brief hearing on the complaint filed by ED, the judge posted the matter for hearing on February 7.
Kejriwal has already skipped five summonses issued to him, dubbing them as illegal on grounds that he was not an accused in the case. The plea in the court against the Delhi CM marked a switch of tack on part of ED which last week arrested Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren after the latter refused to respond to corruption charges.
According to Enforcement Directorate officials and independent legal experts, Kejriwal's failure to respond to summonses could be interpreted as evasive behavior, indicating a lack of cooperation with the investigation.
