NEW DELHI: CM Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday refused to depose before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) terming the communication accompanying the fourth summons issued on January 12 “arbitrary, mala fide and illegal”.
The CM accused the ED of summoning him at the behest of the BJP, to arrest him to prevent him from discharging his constitutional and statutory duties and from campaigning in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
He stated that in a country governed by rule of law, the language and tenor of ED’s communication ignores this basic tenet and demonstrates the arbitrary and biased approach, which is contrary to all constitutional principles, he wrote in his reply, adding ED has made many baseless accusations against him.
The ED had also previously issued summonses to him on October 30, December 18 and 21 last year.
The AAP chief said that the ED communications do not clarify “whether the requirement of his examination under Section 50 of the PMLA in person is necessary for any specific purpose? Whether in the absence of a requirement of any document as envisaged under Section 50(2) PMLA, the recording of his statement ‘to give evidence’ would justify his appearance without disclosing him the fact under inquiry?”
BJP says CM on backfoot, AAP terms ED summons arbitrary
Hours after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal skipped the fourth summons of the Enforcement Directorate, the party leaders on Thursday said that notices are being issued repeatedly to stop the CM from campaigning in Lok Sabha elections.
The party leaders alleged that both the central agencies-ED and CBI are working at the behest of the BJP and these summons are arbitrary and illegal.
“How does the BJP know that ED will arrest Kejriwal? I want to ask them that when the ED does not know whether he is being called as a witness or an accused, how does the BJP know that he will be arrested?” Delhi Cabinet minister Atishi said.
“How does the BJP know that ED summonses are being served to arrest him? The script of ED summonses is written at the BJP headquarters. The BJP decides whom to arrest and then CBI and ED are directed to launch cases, conduct raids. This is what is happening with Kejriwal,” she said.
Atishi reiterated that the summonses were being issued to arrest Kejriwal to stop him from campaigning in the Lok Sabha polls. Meanwhile, Delhi BJP said that the way Kejriwal is avoiding and hiding from the ED summons gives a reason to believe that he is running away from the investigation.
Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said that the way Kejriwal is hiding from the ED’s notice he looks like an economic fugitive. “It seems that Kejriwal knows that the investigation has established that he is the main brain behind the liquor scam. Therefore, now he is trying to linger on the investigation but he should know that people have now understood that the AAP government is immersed in corruption,” he said.
BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia alleged Kejriwal did not appear before the ED as he was “sweating” in winter and “shaking in fear” anticipating his arrest since he knows that he is the kingpin of the excise policy “scam”.
Bhatia described the ED’s summonses to Kejriwal as “justified” and asked the AAP national convenor why he didn’t approach the court challenging the probe agency’s summonses, instead of writing letters and skipping them.