The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in relation to the excise policy matter. Kejriwal has been requested to appear before the central agency on January 3. The central agency has slapped the Delhi Chief Minister with a third summons.
The ED had previously summoned Kejriwal in connection with an excise policy issue on December 18, asking him to appear before the central agency for questioning on December 21. The government agency initially summoned the Delhi Chief Minister to attend on November 2, but he refused to testify, claiming that the notification was “ambiguous, biassed, and legally unfounded.”
“The summons lacks clarity regarding the role for which I am being summoned, whether as a witness or a suspect in the aforementioned case.” Kejriwal expressed in his letter to Jogendar, Assistant Director of the ED, that the summons were imprecise and driven by questionable motives, and he was informed that they lacked legal basis. He additionally claimed that the summons mentioned seemed to be politically driven and issued for unrelated reasons.
On December 18, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) called Arvind Kejriwal once more in regards to the Delhi excise policy issue. Kejriwal expressed scepticism about the timing of the summons, suggesting that they were not based on any objective or rational criteria but rather intended as propaganda and to generate sensational news during the crucial final months leading up to the long-awaited parliamentary elections in the country. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summoned the Chief Minister of Delhi in April this year over the case.
Nevertheless, Kejriwal was not named as a defendant in the initial complaint (FIR) that the CBI filed on August 17 of the previous year. In February 2023, the CBI detained Manish Sisodia. The arrest was made on the grounds of suspected misconduct related to the development and execution of Delhi’s recently discarded excise policy. The policy was retracted following claims of misconduct by the opposition.
Nevertheless, the Delhi Chief Minister opted not to attend the central agency’s hearing, asserting that it was merely a ploy to generate dramatic headlines during the last months of the parliamentary elections in 2024.