Legal Team Studying Summons, Will Take Decision As Per Law: AAP On Fresh ED Notice To Kejriwal

After the Enforcement Directorate issued a fresh summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP on Wednesday said its legal team is studying the notice and will take a decision in accordance with the law. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday issued a fifth summons to Kejriwal for his questioning in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case, official sources said.

It is understood that the fresh summons is for Friday, February 2. The AAP said Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann will take part in a protest outside the BJP headquarters against alleged cheating in the Chandigarh mayoral polls on Friday, the day he has been summoned to appear before the ED.

On Tuesday, in a setback to the Congress and the AAP -- both partners in the opposition INDIA bloc -- the BJP swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls. The AAP-Congress combine alleged that the presiding officer had tampered with the ballot papers. Priyanka Kakkar, the AAP's chief national spokesperson said in a brief statement, "We have received news about the fifth summons. Our legal team is studying it and we will decide what to do as per law. The earlier summonses were illegal and we had sought a reply from the Enforcement Directorate."

Sources said Kejriwal was supposed to flag off 350 electric buses on Friday but it has been postponed after the summonses were issued. Kejriwal, also the national convenor of the AAP, 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 (CBI) probe, following which the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).