Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has approached a sessions court challenging the summons issued to him by the additional chief metropolitan magistrate on two complaints filed by the Enforcement Directorate for evading its summons in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise policy scam.
Delhi Rouse Avenue Court, Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Syal is likely to hear Kejriwal’s applications later in the day. The AAP supremo moved the sessions court against orders passed by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Divya Malhotra, who has ordered Kejriwal to appear before the court on March 16.
The ED had filed two complaints before the magisterial court seeking prosecution of Kejriwal for skipping multiple summons issued to him in the case. The recent complaint relates to the AAP national convenor not honouring summons number four to eight sent by the federal probe agency under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the investigation agency said.
Earlier, the ED had moved the magisterial court seeking Kejriwal’s prosecution for not attending the first three summons issued to him in the money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy. ACMM Malhotra has listed the matter regarding summons number one to three for hearing on March 16 along with the other complaint.
The investigation agency stated that Arvind Kejriwal has till date skipped eight summons issued by the agency. The ED had approached the magistrate court on February 3 and March 6 with a complaint seeking initiation of proceedings against the AAP leader under Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for not appearing before investigators despite repeated summons issued to him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.
According to Section 174 of the IPC, a person not appearing despite summons issued by a public servant shall be punished with imprisonment up to one month and a fine of Rs 500.
The investigation agency has so far issued eight summons to Arvind Kejriwal on March 4, February 26, February 19, February 2, January 18, January 3, and December 22 and November 2 last year, asking him to join the investigation into an alleged money laundering case related to the liquor excise policy case.
The ED added that Arvind Kejriwal was summoned to unearth the role of several people, including himself, who were involved in the alleged excise policy scam, and to trace the proceeds of the alleged crime.
The investigation agency is probing the alleged corruption in the Delhi excise policy 2021-22 and has already apprehended two senior members of the Aam Aadmi Party Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh and filed six charge sheets in the matter.
Though CM Kejriwal has been mentioned in the ED charge sheets, he has not been named as an accused either by ED or the CBI, which is conducting a parallel probe into the matter.