A Delhi court on Thursday ordered chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to appear before it on March 16 after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a fresh complaint a day earlier seeking his trial for evading its summons for questioning in the money laundering case related to the alleged irregularities in now-scrapped 2021-22 Delhi excise policy.
Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Divya Malhotra took cognisance of the complaint while directing Kejriwal to appear physically in court. Kejriwal was earlier directed to appear before the court on March 16 in connection with a separate ED complaint filed on February 3.
ED submitted that Kejriwal has no legal right to know whether he is being summoned as a witness or an accused. “It is a wilful and intentional disobedience to the summons, making out an offence under Section 174 [disobeying a legal order] of the IPC [Indian Penal Code]...the grounds raised by him [Kejriwal] for not complying with the summons are frivolous and vexatious and therefore, prima facie the offence is made out,” argued additional solicitor-general SV Raju, who appeared for ED.
He referred to Kejriwal’s replies to the ED summons and said it is unheard of that a person being summoned wants to know whether he is being summoned as a witness, a suspect, or an accused. “It appears that the person is interrogating the investigating officer and not the other way around…Under which provision is he supposed to know under what role is he being called? He wants information that cannot be divulged,” Raju told the court. He added the investigation in the case is being hindered because Kejriwal is not joining it.
{{/usCountry}}He referred to Kejriwal’s replies to the ED summons and said it is unheard of that a person being summoned wants to know whether he is being summoned as a witness, a suspect, or an accused. “It appears that the person is interrogating the investigating officer and not the other way around…Under which provision is he supposed to know under what role is he being called? He wants information that cannot be divulged,” Raju told the court. He added the investigation in the case is being hindered because Kejriwal is not joining it.
{{/usCountry}}On ED’s first complaint, the court on February 7 directed Kejriwal to physically appear before it. The court said he was legally bound to appear before ED when summons were issued. By that time, Kejriwal had skipped five summons since November 2.
On February 17, Kejriwal appeared in the court virtually. He submitted that he could not appear physically due to the ongoing budget session. Since then, he has skipped three more summons. Kejriwal on Monday wrote a letter to the agency saying he is ready to answer its questions via video conferencing after March 12.
The ED blamed Kejriwal in its first complaint for intentionally ignoring its summons and raising “frivolous” objections. The agency added Kejriwal was summoned over the role of several people, including himself, in the excise policy, and to trace the proceeds of the alleged crime.
Aam Aadmi Party leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh have been among those arrested in the case. Kejriwal has been mentioned in the ED charge sheets, but has not been named an accused.