New Delhi: For the second time on Thursday, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal skipped the Enforcement Directorate summons, alleging they were issued at the behest of political rivals who wish to silence the voice of the Opposition. The AAP alleged that the excise probe is an attempt to stop the Aam Aadmi Party's growth and popularity. The BJP, on their part, claimed that the way Mr Kejriwal is running away from inquiry gives us reason to believe that he is the "mastermind of the scam".
The AAP supremo was summoned by the ED for questioning in the excise policy-linked money laundering case on Thursday. However, the Delhi chief minister left for an undisclosed location for a 10-day Vipassana meditation course on Wednesday.
In his reply to ED, Mr Kejriwal said the summons do not specify whether he was being called as "a witness or a suspect or as the chief minister of Delhi or the AAP's national convener". He said the fresh summons, issued on December 18, should be revoked, withdrawn and recalled.
"The timing of your summons leaves much to desire and strengthens my belief that the summons being sent to me are not based upon any objective or rational yardstick but for extraneous considerations at the behest of political rivals who wish to silence the voice of the Opposition to the ruling dispensation at the Centre to create sensational news in the final few months leading up to the parliamentary elections in early to mid-2024," the reply read.
Defending Mr Kejriwal, Delhi minister and AAP leader Atishi alleged, "The ED couldn't find any evidence of wrongdoing despite raiding several locations linked to AAP leaders. After two years of investigation, not even a penny of ill-gotten money could be found."
Slamming Mr Kejriwal for skipping the ED summons, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said that it is surprising to see that instead of appearing, he is trying to garner public sympathy by raising a debate on social media. "If there was nothing wrong with their liquor policy, then why did the then deputy CM Manish Sisodia, now in jail, withdrew the policy the moment a CBI inquiry was ordered?" said Mr Sachdeva.
The Delhi chief minister skipped the first summons issued by the ED on November 2, alleging the notice was illegal and politically motivated. He said the ED served the fresh summons without responding to the issues raised by him in his previous reply.
"Your summons appears to be fishing and roving inquiry. In similar circumstances, where individuals are neither informed about the case details nor the capacity in which they are being summoned, the high courts have declared such summons of the ED invalid and quashed the summons," the reply said.
The AAP supremo stressed that he is "holding a sensitive constitutional post as an elected leader and incumbent CM of GNCTD".
In his reply, Mr Kejriwal stressed that despite his publicly known schedule of leaving for the Vipassana meditation course, he received the ED summons on the eve of my departure. "My schedule was widely published and largely circulated all over the media in the country, as well as officially announced. To my utter dismay and concern, I have received the subject summons," Mr Kejriwal said in his reply.
Asserting that he is a law-abiding, conscientious and ordinary citizen of the country, Mr Kejriwal said he does not shirk away from complying with any summons issued in compliance with the law, but the "summons are (I am advised) not in consonance with the law".
