Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been served with two fresh summonses from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), one related to the Delhi liquor policy case and the other concerning a case linked to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), according to his cabinet colleague Atishi. The latest notices come amid a series of legal challenges faced by Kejriwal in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
Atishi remarked that the DJB case appears to be a “backup plan” aimed at hindering Kejriwal’s election campaign, adding that the details of this case remain unclear to many. The CM has been instructed to appear before the agency on Monday regarding the DJB case and on Thursday regarding the liquor policy case.
Kejriwal has previously disregarded eight summonses related to the liquor policy case, asserting their illegality. Recently, a Delhi court granted him bail after he ignored six out of the eight ED summonses.
Responding to the latest summons, a BJP leader accused Kejriwal of evading the law and urged him to cooperate with the agency’s investigation. The ED’s actions have drawn criticism from the AAP, with Atishi accusing the BJP of using investigative agencies like the ED and CBI to target political opponents.
The ED’s scrutiny in the liquor policy case revolves around allegations of money laundering in the scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22, which purportedly favored certain liquor dealers. The AAP has refuted these allegations.
In the DJB case, the ED has alleged that funds obtained through bribes in a Delhi government tender were funneled as electoral funds to the AAP. This investigation has led to raids on Kejriwal’s personal assistant Bibhav Kumar, AAP MP ND Gupta, former DJB member Shalabh Kumar, and others earlier this year.
Notably, retired Chief Engineer Jagdish Kumar Arora and contractor Anil Kumar Aggarwal were arrested in January in connection with the bribery case related to DJB contracts.
Sources By Agencies