Delhi Chief Minister will not appear before the
Enforcement Directorate after he was summoned in connection with the alleged
Delhi Liquor scam case.
Instead, Kejriwal along with Punjab Chief Minister
Bhagwant Mann will travel to Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh to address an election
rally and stage a road show.
Earlier, the Delhi Chief Minister questioned the
legality of the Enforcement Directorate summons issued to him on October 30 and
demanded that the agency withdraw the notice.
“The summon notice is illegal and politically
motivated. The notice was sent at the behest of the BJP. Notice was sent to
ensure that I am unable to go for election campaigning in four States. The ED
should withdraw the notice immediately,” Kejriwal stated in his reply to ED.
The ED’s move to summon the Delhi Chief Minister has
taken a political turn with the AAP accusing the BJP of vendetta.
“This is being seen by not only India but the entire
world that the Centre is drunk in power and it is so arrogant that it wants to
crush every small political party. Aam Aadmi Party is a growing national party,
and the BJP Government is trying everything to crush it” said AAP MLA Saurabh
Bharadwaj.
The BJP responded saying that the law was just taking
its natural cause and the Delhi CM must comply with it.
“The law is doing its work. The ED has summoned him
under the law. Two days ago, the Supreme Court observation regarding Manish
Sisodia’s bail said that there is a money trail of Rs 338 crores. Arvind
Kejriwal has to answer this because it is not possible that there is a money
trail and he is not aware of it… He has to answer this question. He also has
to answer why the excise was increased to 12 per cent from 5 per cent… He is
playing the victim card that this is vendetta politics,” said BJP spokesperson
Harish Khurana.
Arvind Kejriwal was earlier summoned by the Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in April this year, in connection with the case.
However, Kejriwal was not named as an accused in the
first information report (FIR) filed by the CBI on August 17, last year.
In February 2023, Arvind Kejriwal’s Deputy Manish
Sisodia was arrested by the CBI for alleged irregularities in the framing and
implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi’s new excise policy. The policy was
withdrawn amid allegations of foul play by the opposition.
The Supreme Court on October 30 dismissed the bail
plea of Manish Sisodia in connection with cases related to alleged
irregularities in the Delhi Excise Policy case. The court directed to complete
the trial in the case in six to eight months.
The court, while refusing bail, also took note of the
aspects regarding the transfer of a money trail of 338 crores, which is
tentatively established.
ANI
