Delhi Jal Board case: CM Kejriwal to not appear before ED, AAP calls summon 'illegal'

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal will not appear before the Enforcement Directorate on Monday, March 18. The ED issued a summons to Kejriwal under section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the Delhi Jal Board case. The ED is probing illegal tendering in Delhi Jal Board and laundering of alleged proceeds of crime.

The AAP has termed ED summons as illegal.

"When there is bail from the court, why is ED sending summons again and again? ED summons are illegal," the AAP said.

In February, the ED conducted raids at around 10 locations in the national capital linked to people connected with the AAP in its money laundering probe in Delhi Jal Board. The raids took place at the residence of AAP MP ND Gupta, Kejriwal's secretary Bibhav Kumar, and former Delhi Jal Board (DJB) member Shalabh Kumar among others.

The raids pertain to a probe linked to alleged irregularities in the tendering process of the DJB in which the ED arrested retired chief engineer Jagdish Kumar Arora and contractor Anil Kumar Aggarwal in February.

The ED is probing two separate matters of irregularities in the tendering process of the DJB and its criminal case stems from an FIR of the CBI and the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi government.

The CBI FIR alleged that officials of the DJB gave "undue advantage" to NKG Infrastructure Limited while awarding the tender to the company for the supply, installation, testing, and commissioning of electromagnetic flow metres in connivance with officials of the NBCC (India) Limited. The second allegation pertains to the ACB complaint of November 2022 where it was stated that the DJB awarded a tender for setting up automotive bill payment collection machines (kiosks) in its different offices for facilitating consumers in bill payment.