The Aam Aadmi Party has said Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal will not appear before the Enforcement Directorate today and that he has informed the same to the agency. This is the third time that Kejriwal skipped summons in the liquor policy case. The party claimed that the agency's notice was illegal and was done to stop him from election campaigning. "Ready to cooperate in ED investigation but the agency's notice is illegal. Their intention is to arrest Arvind Kejriwal. They want to stop him from the election campaign," AAP said.
Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said, "Till date, neither ED nor Center have told us in what capacity they are calling Arvind Kejriwal, he is neither a witness nor an accused. Questions also arise because of the timing (of the summon). When all the parties are preparing for the Lok Sabha elections, conspiracy is being done by the central govt to arrest Arvind Kejriwal so that he cannot campaign for the elections."
He said that former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has been under arrest for over a year but bo evidence have been found against him adding that preparations are underway to arrest Kejriwal now, "Manish Sisodia has been under arrest for 1 year. They have not been able to gather any evidence against Manish Sisodia and now preparations are on to arrest Arvind Kejriwal. Efforts are being made continuously to arrest the opposition leaders of the country. Many cases come up against BJP leaders but no action is being taken against them. BJP was running a campaign against everyone from Suvendhu Adhikari to Mukul Roy, Pema Khandu, Ajit Pawar, Himanta Biswa Sarma, and then they joined BJP..."
Meanwhile, Delhi Minister Atishi said, "After getting summons twice, Arvind Kejriwal wrote a letter to ED and asked why was he called by the agency? ED has not answered Arvind Kejriwal's questions so far. ED officials also know that the summon is illegal, they cannot tell the truth that they have received orders from the BJP office...Today only people from the INDIA bloc are summoned. Despite an investigation of one and a half years, no evidence of even a single rupee has been found...This summon is only because of the Lok Sabha elections. All the parties are coming together for the Lok Sabha elections and hence BJP wants to eliminate the opposition through ED..."
Reacting to this, Congress leader Udit Raj said, "ED is carrying out raids at the associates of Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren. ED notices were sent to former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel right before the elections and false allegations were put on him. Arvind Kejriwal is also a part of the opposition alliance...It is true that these agencies are not doing their work but putting pressure on the opposition leaders."