Delhi CM Kejriwal likely to skip ED summons for fifth time: Report

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal is unlikely to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the Delhi excise policy, sources in the party said.

The ED on Wednesday issued a fresh and the fifth summons to Kejriwal after he skipped four earlier summonses issued by the federal agency over the last four months.

Though the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) remained tight-lipped about whether the Delhi CM will appear before the probe agency, sources in the party said that he is likely to skip the summons this time too.

The AAP has maintained that its legal team is studying the summons issued to Kejriwal in connection with the excise policy linked money laundering case.

Kejriwal is scheduled to participate in a protest along with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann outside the BJP headquarters on Friday against the alleged cheating in Chandigarh mayoral polls.

On Tuesday, in a setback to the Congress and the AAP -- both INDIA bloc members -- the BJP swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls. The AAP-Congress combine alleged that the presiding officer had tampered with the ballot papers.

Kejriwal skipped ED summonses for November 2 and December 21 in 2023 and January 3 and January 18 this year.

He had called these notices "illegal".

It is alleged that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge repeatedly refuted by the AAP.

The policy was subsequently scrapped and Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe, following which the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).