The Enforcement Directorate has issued two summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to appear for questioning on March 18 and 21, official sources said Sunday.
The first summons, which is the ninth in this case, is related to the excise policy linked money laundering case. The 55-year-old national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been asked to depose at the central agency's office in central Delhi on March 21. The ninth summons have been issued so that Kejriwal's statement can be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.
Kejriwal has also been summoned by the ED questioning on March 18 in a money laundering probe linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), official sources said on Sunday.
This is the second case registered under the anti-money laundering law in which the AAP convenor has been called.
Senior AAP Leader and Delhi minister Atishi on Sunday said the ED has sent Kejriwal a fresh summons to join its probe in a 'fake' case linked to the Delhi Jal Board.
"Nobody knows what this DJB (Delhi Jal Board) case is about. This seems to be a backup plan to arrest Kejriwal anyhow and stop him from campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls," she claimed at a press conference in New Delhi.
Atishi said two summonses asking Kejriwal to appear before the federal agency next week were received hours after the Lok Sabha poll date announcement on Saturday. One of them is related to the excise policy case and the other to the DJB, she added.
The AAP leader charged that the Bharatiya Janata Party was using the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation as its 'goons' to finish off political opponents.
There was no immediate reaction from the ED and the CBI on this.
A Delhi court on Saturday had granted bail to Kejriwal on two complaints filed by the agency against him for skipping six of the previous eight summons in the excise policy case.
The ED had moved the magisterial court seeking Kejriwal's prosecution for not attending the summonses issued to him in the case.
The agency arrested Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader K Kavitha in this case two days ago.
Kejriwal's name has been mentioned multiple times in charge sheets filed by the ED in the excise policy case.
The agency has said that the accused were in touch with Kejriwal regarding the preparation of the excise policy for 2021-22.
So far, the ED has arrested AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, party communications in-charge Vijay Nair and some liquor businessmen in this case.
The ED had claimed in its charge sheet that the AAP used "proceeds of crime" to the tune of about Rs 45 crore in its Goa assembly polls campaign.
It is alleged that the Delhi government's excise policy 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 Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the irregularities in its formulation and implementation. Later, the ED registered a case under the PMLA.
