The Enforcement Directorate has once again summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to appear before it for the seventh time on Monday, February 26, in connection with its probe in the excise policy case, news agency ANI said citing sources. This comes after the AAP convenor skipped the summons several times before.
Kejriwal skipped the agency's summons for the sixth time on February 19 with the AAP saying that the agency should wait for the court's decisions before issuing further summons. The party said, "ED should wait for the court's decision instead of repeatedly sending summonses to Delhi CM Kejriwal," said AAP, news agency PTI reported.
Ahead of this, Kejriwal informed the court that he was keen on appearing before the court in person in connection with a plea filed by the ED under but could not because of the budget session and floor test.
Appearing before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Divya Malhotra via video link, CM Kejriwal stated: "I wanted to attend court, but this trust vote popped up unexpectedly. Our budget session runs until the first week of March. You may tell me a date after that, and I'll appear."
The probe agency has issued the sixth summons to Kejriwal on February 14, requesting him to appear at its headquarters on February 19.
Kejriwal has so far skipped all the summonses issued by the agency, terming those "illegal".
"This summons is just an attempt at revenge by the BJP for the Supreme Court upholding democracy in its verdict on the Chandigarh mayoral poll. This is a revenge for the AAP's victory in the Chandigarh mayoral poll," Atishi said.