Arvind Kejriwal Skips ED Summons, To Attend Road Show In Poll-Bound MP

Arvind Kejriwal will not appear before the ED today in connection with questioning in the liquor policy case.

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal.

Source : Twitter/ANI

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will not appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) today in connection with questions in the liquor policy case. He will hold a road show, along with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh, today. Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and senior party leader Sanjay Singh have already been arrested in the case.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal will not appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) today. He will hold a road show, along with Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh today.

(File photo) pic.twitter.com/weeUzG0YNL

— ANI (@ANI) November 2, 2023

Security has been beefed up with the deployment of extra police forces outside the office of the Enforcement Directorate in Delhi ahead of the much-anticipated appearance of the Delhi Chief Minister.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate are probing the Delhi excise policy for 2021–22, which has now been scrapped. The policy allegedly favoured certain liquor dealers, a charge strongly denied by the AAP. According to a report of the chief secretary of the Delhi government, Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena called for a CBI probe into the irregularities in July last year.

While the Centre has alleged his involvement in the irregularities in connection with the policies, the AAP has maintained that this was the BJP's ploy to 'finish' the party and opposition leaders also joined in the chorus claiming that the saffron party was misusing central agencies against opposition parties ahead of the elections.

Speaking at a press conference, party leader Raghav Chadha claimed that since 2014, ninety-five per cent of cases registered by the investigative agencies have been against opposition leaders. "Now after the formation of the INDIA alliance, the BJP is rattled. We have learnt from sources that they have hatched a plan to target top leaders from the INDIA alliance. The first arrest in this plan will be of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal," he said.

"The BJP knows it is losing all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. It is planning to get Kejriwal arrested so that AAP is not able to contest the polls," Chadha added. The AAP leader also shared a list of those who could be targeted by the probe agencies after Kejriwal.

"After Kejriwal, they will arrest Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and then Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee. After these leaders, they will target Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and then top leaders of the Shiv Sena and the NCP in Maharashtra," he alleged.