Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal virtually appeared before the Rouse Avenue Court on Saturday in the hearing of the complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate over evading the notice of the agency for questioning in a money laundering case linked to Delhi liquor scam.
CM Kejriwal appeared before the court via video conferencing as he sought exemption from physical appearance citing the ongoing Budget session of the Delhi Assembly and the floor test scheduled on Saturday.
According to news agency ANI, the Delhi CM was summoned to appear before the Rouse Avenue court following a complaint filed by ED over his alleged non-compliance with its notices for questioning.
Senior Advocate Ramesh Gupta, who appeared for CM Kejriwal moved an exemption plea and assured the court of his physical appearance on the next date of hearing.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal appeared before Rouse Avenue court via video conferencing in the matter of the Enforcement Directorate's recent complaint against him in the excise policy case, today. The CM told the court that due to the confidence motion discussion in the assembly and… https://t.co/7VRDoMVPrz
— ANI (@ANI) February 17, 2024
Following the plea, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Divya Malhotra sought his physical appearance at the next hearing, which is scheduled on March 16.
Earlier, the Delhi court on February 7 had summoned CM Kejriwal to appear before it for a hearing today.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo has been summoned by the ED for the sixth time to appear before it on February 19 for questioning in the Delhi excise policy case.
Kejriwal, on February 2, skipped the summon for the fifth time, calling it "unlawful”. While the four previous notices issued by the ED were served on January 18, January 3, November 2, and December 22 last year.
Given Kejriwal’s repeated evasion of notices, ED moved the court alleging that the Delhi CM was intentionally avoiding the questioning by the probe agency and giving lame excuses.
With three AAP leaders— Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, and Satyendra Jain— already in jail in money laundering cases, Kejriwal has continued to maintain that the notices served by ED were illegal. He alleged that the central agency was only trying to arrest him.
The central agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and ED are probing the alleged link of AAP leaders in the Delhi liquor policy scam. The probe has also turned into a political slugfest between AAP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Meanwhile, the Arvind Kejriwal-led government won the trust vote in the Delhi Assembly on Saturday. The motion of confidence was moved by Arvind Kejriwal in the ongoing Budget session of the Delhi Assembly. In the 70-member Assembly, 54 of the 62 AAP MLAs were present during voting.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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