Delhi Court To Hear ED's Fresh Complaint Against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal For Skipping Summons Today

A Delhi court will hear on Thursday ED's fresh complaint seeking prosecution of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal for skipping multiple summons issued to him in  connection to Delhi liquor policy case.

The Rouse Avenue court in Delhi will hear the case today.

Source : PTI

A Delhi court will hear on Thursday Enforcement Directorate's (ED) fresh complaint seeking prosecution of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for skipping multiple summons issued to him in  connection to Delhi liquor policy case.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor has so far skipped 8 summons by the ED. The central probe agency has raised this fresh complaint  against him for skipping last four summons under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). 

The Rouse Avenue court in Delhi will hear the case today.

Earlier, the ED filed a complaint against Kejriwal's for not attending the first three summons issued to him in the money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy. The hearing in that case will be held on March 16.

The Delhi CM has called all the ED summons illegal. While skipping the eigth summon Kejriwal informed ED that he could be questioned via a videoconferencing link after March 12.

In a press conference on March 4, Kejriwal said that that his party has not done anything wrong nor are they trying to hide.

According to PTI, the ED has filed the fresh complaint under Section 174 (non-attendance in obedience to an order from public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Section 63(4) of the PMLA that speaks about a person who intentionally disobeys any direction along with sections 190(1)(a) (receiving a complaint of facts which constitute such offence) and 200 (evidence of witnesses on oath) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for non-attendance in compliance of Section 50 (powers of authorities regarding summons, production of documents and to give evidence, etc.) of the PMLA.

A similar action was taken by the ED against former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren. 

The Ranchi court held the JMM leader prima facie guilty of disobeying notices issued to him by the agency and asked him to appear on April 3.

According to the PTI report, Kejriwal's name has been mentioned multiple times in charge sheets filed by the ED in the excise policy case. ED has claimed that the accused were in touch with the Delhi CM regarding the preparation of the excise policy for 2021-22.

AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, party communications in-charge Vijay Nair and some liquor businessmen have allready been arrested by the ED in this case.

The ED has contended that AAP used proceeds of crime to the tune of about Rs 45 crore in Goa Assembly Elections.

The Delhi excise policy was scrapped after it came under scanner for granting licences to liquor traders in a way that it allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it. The AAP has refuted these claims.

After the policy was scrapped, the Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the irregularities in its formulation and implementation. Following which, the ED registered a case under the PMLA.