Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has refused to appear before India’s financial crimes agency for questioning in an alleged corruption case, saying the summons was “vague and motivated”.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating a case related to a now-scrapped liquor policy in the state.
In a letter to the ED, Mr Kejriwal has asked them to “recall the summons”.
He said he had to campaign for upcoming assembly elections and perform important duties as chief minister.
The leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which governs Delhi, Mr Kejriwal had been summoned for questioning by the ED on Thursday morning.
But minutes before it was time for him to show up at the ED office, he released a statement saying that the summons “was unclear” about whether he was being summoned as a witness or a suspect in the case.
He said it was also unclear if he was being summoned in his capacity as chief minister or as the national convenor of his party.
He added that being the leader and “star campaigner” of his party, he had to travel for campaigning work to states where assembly elections are due in November.
Leaders from India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have criticised Mr Kejriwal’s remarks.
Legal experts say that an individual can ignore an ED summons three times. After that, the ED can get a non-bailable warrant mandating Mr Kejriwal’s presence in court on a specific date.
If he does not show up, Mr Kejriwal can be arrested. Alternatively, he can challenge the summons in court or seek bail.
India’s top investigation agency – the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) – and the ED allege that there were irregularities in the framing and implementation of the liquor policy in Delhi.
The policy was implemented by the AAP government in 2021 and was withdrawn less than a year later.
Investigators allege that it favoured certain liquor dealers and that illicit gains were used by the AAP to fund an election campaign – allegations that the AAP has strongly denied.
AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh have been arrested in the case.
The AAP has accused the federal government of a political vendetta and the BJP has accused the AAP of indulging in corrupt practices for political gains.
Questions of corruption are a sensitive matter for the Aam Aadmi Party, which emerged more than 10 years ago from a major movement against corruption, with Mr Kejriwal described as an “anti-corruption crusader”.
In April, Mr Kejriwal was questioned by the CBI for nine hours in connection with the case. At the time, he had said that the entire case was “fabricated” and built to “bring down” his party.
The AAP has been trying to position itself as a key opposition force to the BJP – apart from being in power in Delhi and Punjab state, it contested elections in Goa this year and plans to do so in three more states.
The CBI and the ED report to the federal government, which is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Many opposition leaders, including Mr Kejriwal, have accused the BJP of using federal agencies to target them in the run-up to the general elections in 2024, an allegation the governing party denies.
Earlier this week, reports said the AAP was planning future steps should Mr Kejriwal be arrested. “It would be decided by senior party leaders. But if the whole party is in jail, then the government and the party would run from jail,” AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj told the media on Wednesday.
In May, the ED had arrested Delhi’s former health minister Satyendra Jain in a money-laundering case. He is out on bail on health grounds.
Manish Sisodia, the state’s former deputy chief minister, was arrested in February in the liquor policy case, while party MP Sanjay Singh was arrested in the same case last month. They remain in jail as their bail pleas have been rejected by courts.
On Thursday, hours before Mr Kejriwal was to be questioned, the ED searched Delhi Social Welfare Minister Raaj Kumar Anand’s house and nine other places linked to him in a separate money-laundering case.
Source: BBC
