Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal skipped the seventh summons on Monday. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued multiple summonses to the minister in connection with the Delhi excise policy case and money laundering probe. The Aam Aadmi Party, of which Kejriwal is the convenor, said that the agency should wait for the court order instead of summoning the minister repeatedly.
The ED had issued the seventh summons to Kejriwal last week asking him to make an appearance on Monday. Kejriwal has skipped all the summonses by the ED, terming them illegal. He also wrote to the agency seeking their withdrawal.
“Delhi CM and AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal will not go to ED today. The matter is in the court and the next hearing is on March 16. Instead of sending summons daily, the ED should wait for the court's decision. We will not leave the INDIA alliance. Modi government should not create pressure like this,” AAP said in a statement.
ED had rejected the contention that a fresh summons cannot be issued as the matter was sub-judice before a local court.
Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said that the BJP is misusing government machinery as they have discovered through internal surveys that the party will not win even 200 seats.
"Look at the coincidence. This was first done with the Jharkhand CM - break the alliance and don't join INDIA. He was then sent to jail. The same is being done in Bihar – they are a part of the alliance, so false cases are being slapped on Tejashwi Yadav and ailing Lalu Yadav, and ED, CBI and I-T cases are being misused. In Maharashtra, they said that there is scam of thousands of crores of rupees but then they forged an alliance (with Ajit Pawar), he became "clean"...” said Tiwari.
Tiwari added, “Similarly, they are trying to see that Arvind Kejriwal doesn't join the alliance. BJP is scared, their internal survey says that they won't get even 200 seats. They must have received feedback from Uttar Pradesh too...INDIA is strengthening and BJP's despair is deepening and it is misusing government machinery."