NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday appeared before Rouse Avenue Court through video conferencing on the plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for skipping its summons issued to him in the excise policy case.
Before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Divya Malhotra, the Chief Minister expressed his readiness to appear in court in person after the present urgencies of the floor test and the upcoming budget session in March.
"I wanted to appear but this floor test came suddenly. Our budget session will go on till March first week. You may list the case after that, I will appear personally," Kejriwal told the court in Hindi.
Accordingly, the court posted the matter for further hearing on March 16.
On February 7, taking cognisance of the probe agency's complaint, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Divya Malhotra directed Kejriwal to appear before the court on February 17.
"..prima facie offence under Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 is made out and there are sufficient grounds for proceeding under Section 204 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 against accused Mr Arvind Kejriwal," the judge noted in the order.
As per Section 174, a person who intentionally disobeys the directions issued by the agency shall be prosecuted and shall be punished with imprisonment extending up to one month or with a fine or both.
ED had issued summons to Kejriwal on October 30, November 2, December 18, Dec 22 last year and latest by January 3 requiring his attendance "to give evidence in connection with the investigation or proceedings under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)" in relation to the alleged scam in relation to the now-scrapped Excise Policy of the national capital which was skipped by the latter.
Objecting to the summons as “unsustainable in law”, Kejriwal pointed out the failure to disclose the capacity in which he was being called -- as a witness or as a suspect.
The agency submitted, under PMLA, the investigating officer is not required to disclose the capacity under which a person is being summoned and at the stage of investigation, it would be premature to label the summoned person either as a witness or as an accused.
The central agency told the court that the investigation carried out so far has revealed that the excise policy 2021-22 was formulated "as a part of a criminal conspiracy by the leaders of Aam Aadmi Party with deliberate loopholes to generate and channel illegal funds" unto themselves as well as to the party.
The agency had claimed in its charge sheet that the AAP used “proceeds of crime” to the tune of about Rs 45 crore in its Goa election campaign.
Some arrests including that of several leaders of AAP were also made, it added.