ED issues seventh summon to CM Kejriwal to appear on Feb 26: Sources

NEW DELHI: The Directorate of Enforcement on Thursday issued the seventh summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to appear before the agency. Sources say the Delhi CM has been asked to appear before the ED on February 26. On February 14, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had issued a sixth summons to the Delhi Chief Minister in the money laundering probe related to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 case, asking him to join the investigation on February 19.

The fresh summons to the Delhi Chief Minister were issued after he skipped the fifth summons on February 2. Arvind Kejriwal had earlier skipped five previous summons issued by the ED on February 2, January 18, January 3, November 2 and December 22, calling them "illegal and politically motivated.".

The ED wants to record Kejriwal's statement in the case on issues like the formulation of policy, meetings held before it was finalised, and allegations of bribery. While skipping the fifth summons issued by the ED, Kejriwal termed it "illegal", saying he was ready to cooperate but the agency's intention was to arrest him and stop him from election campaigning.

"All five notices sent to me (by the ED) are illegal and invalid in the eyes of the law. Whenever such general, non-specific notices were sent by the ED in the past, they were quashed and declared invalid by courts. These notices are being sent as part of a political conspiracy," Kejriwal said after skipping the fifth notice. A day after Kejriwal skipped the fifth summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate, the agency on February 3 approached a Delhi Court against him for "non-compliance with the summons".

The case is based on a First Information Report (FIR) alleging multiple irregularities in the formation and implementation of the Delhi excise policy (2021-22) by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The policy was withdrawn after allegations of corruption. In its sixth charge sheet filed in the case on December 2, 2023, naming AAP leader Sanjay Singh and his alleged aide Sarvesh Mishra, the ED had claimed that the AAP used kickbacks worth Rs 45 crore generated via the policy as part of its assembly elections campaign in Goa in 2022.

Two senior AAP leaders -- Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh -- are already under judicial custody in the case. Sisodia, who was the then Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, was arrested by the CBI on February 26 following several rounds of questioning and on October 5, the ED arrested Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha member.