NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday filed a fresh complaint against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal before a Delhi court, a day after the AAP convenor skipped the probe agency’s summons for the eighth time in the now-scrapped excise policy case.
Following the last summons, the AAP leader had expressed readiness to appear before the agency through video-conferencing after March 12.
As per the order accessed by this newspaper, the central probe agency again approached the Rouse Avenue Court against the AAP chief over his non-attendance in compliance of Section 50, Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, similar to the earlier move.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Divya Malhotra has listed the matter to be heard on Thursday while the first ED complaint will come up for hearing on March 16.
The CM had earlier appeared before the ACMM through videoconferencing and said he wanted to appear personally but the Budget Session of the Assembly commenced on February 15 and shall continue till the first week of March.
The ED had moved court with the fresh complaint, similar to its earlier plea, which was filed under Section 190 (1)(a) CrPC read with Section 200 CrPC, read with Section 174 of IPC read with Section 63 (4) of the PMLA, 2002 “for non-attendance in compliance of Section 50, PMLA”.
As per this provision of the PMLA, a person who intentionally disobeys the directions issued by the agency shall be prosecuted under section 174 IPC, which describes that such a person shall be punished with imprisonment extending up to one month or with a fine or both.
Kejriwal has, so far, skipped eight summons issued by the federal agency over the last four months. He was called on earlier dates like February 19, January 18, January 3, December 21 and November 2 in 2023. The chief Minister has always called these notices “illegal”.
AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh among others have been arrested by the ED in the case.