New Delhi: A day after Arvind Kejriwal snubbed the Enforcement Directorate’s second summons in the liquor policy case, the agency has now asked the Delhi chief minister to appear before it on January 3. Mr Kejriwal had been summoned by the agency on Thursday, but had left for a 10-day pre-scheduled vipassana (meditation) retreat a day earlier.
If the AAP chief skips the summons for a third time on January 3, the Enforcement Directorate will have the option of seeking a non-bailable warrant against him.
Reacting to the fresh summons, AAP leader and Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said it appears less like a legal process and more like political posturing.
“Everyone knows that Hon’ble CM Arvind Kejriwal is in Vipasana. ED knows well that he can’t be served summons while he is without any communication during 10 days meditation. This summon appears more of a political posturing of Central Govt than a legal process (sic),” Mr Bharadwaj posted on X.
Responding to the agency’s summons for Thursday, Mr Kejriwal had called it “politically motivated and illegal”. The AAP chief had also said that he has lived his life through transparency and honesty and has nothing to hide.
He was first asked to appear on November 2, while campaigning for the Assembly elections in five states was on, and had written a letter to the Enforcement Directorate, asking it to take the summons back.
Alleging that the summons had been sent at the behest of the BJP, Mr Kejriwal had said in the letter, “The said summons does not specify whether I am being summoned as an individual or in my official capacity as Chief Minister of Delhi or as National Convenor of AAP and appears to be in the nature of a fishing and roving inquiry.”
The AAP chief had been questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the case in April, but had not been made an accused by the agency.
“The CBI asked me a total of 56 questions. Everything is fake. The case is fake. I am convinced they don’t have anything on us, not a single piece of evidence,” he had said at the time, hitting out both at the agency and the BJP-led government at the Centre.
Ever since the first summons was issued by the Enforcement Directorate, there has been intense speculation that the Delhi chief minister would be arrested by the agency after his questioning. Several leaders from the AAP have also issued statements along similar lines.
Former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was arrested in connection with the case in February, and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh was taken into custody in October.
