Delhi Excise Policy Case: ED Issues 5th Summons To CM Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday issued fresh summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.

Sources said this is the fifth summon to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief. Kejriwal, who has previously skipped four summons from the anti-corruption agency, has been asked to appear before the ED on February 2.

The ED had issued the first summons to Kejriwal on October 30, 2023. It asked him to appear before the federal agency on November 2 for questioning in connection with the alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped excise policy.

However, Kejriwal skipped the ED summon after sending a response to the central agency. He had said that the summon issued to him was illegal, politically motivated and given on request of BJP.

At the time, Kejriwal was leaving for campaign in then poll-bound Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli.

The AAP chief also skipped the second summon from the ED, saying that they are “illegal”, “politically motivated” adding that they “should be withdrawn”.

The AAP chief decided to go to a Vipassana session — meditation session — giving a skip to the ED summons for the second time.

The second summon, which asked him to appear before the anti-corruption agency on December 21, was issued to Kejriwal on December 18, 2023.

Kejriwal said that he was willing to abide by all the legal summons, provided the “illegal ones” are withdrawn. “This ED summon is also illegal like the previous summons,” Kejriwal said in his response.

Kejriwal had said that the timing at which he was summoned “strengthened” his belief that they are not based on any “objective criteria” but purely for “propaganda”.