A court on Thursday issued fresh summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal following the second complaint by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for reportedly not cooperating in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise scam. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Divya Malhotra has issued a fresh summons and directed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor to appear before the court on March 16.
On Wednesday, the central agency filed a complaint before the court, seeking prosecution of Kejriwal for skipping multiple summons issued by ED in connection with the alleged Delhi Excise Policy scam. In its complaint, ED argued that Kejriwal was summoned multiple times to appear before the probe agency for questioning in the case, but the Delhi Chief Minister has refused to comply.
The Enforcement Directorate filed the fresh complaint before the Rose Avenue court after Kejriwal refused to appear before it on March 4 for the eighth time. The central agency had first issued a summons to Kejriwal on November 2 last year.
ED's latest complaint pertains to Kejriwal not honouring summons number four to eight sent by the central probe agency under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Earlier, the ED moved a Delhi court seeking Kejriwal's prosecution for skipping the first three summons issued to him for questioning in the money laundering case related to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.
The ED had on February 3 filed a case against Kejriwal, who was later asked to appear before the court personally on March 16.
Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party have termed the ED's summons as ‘illegal’ and ‘politically motivated’, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The ED's probe in the matter stems from a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in August 2022 in connection with alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy for FY 2021-22.
The CBI registered a case on a complaint made by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena in July 2022.
Senior AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh among others have already been taken into custody in connection with the case.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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