NEW DELHI: CM
Arvind Kejriwal
Thursday skipped
ED
’s fourth summons to appear for questioning at the agency’s headquarters in the excise policy case and instead chose to leave for Goa, calling the four summonses “illegal” as he was not an accused in the case.
His non-appearance is seen as being evasive and not cooperating with the probe, reason enough for the agency to arrest him and approach court for custodial interrogation.
He had earlier evaded going to the ED office on grounds of being busy with assembly elections last Nov, then for his pre-booked Vipassana retreat in Dec and now being busy with R-Day preparations and the forthcoming LS polls.
Kejriwal said the summons were meant to arrest him and prevent him from campaigning in the polls. He said these had no legal standing and were rejected by courts in the past.
“I have repeatedly written to the ED saying the notices are illegal but they have not replied to me," he told reporters and added that the agency had found nothing in its two-year-long probe while “false statements are being extracted out of people by beating them”.
In its fourth summons, ED had asked
Kejriwal
to make himself available to record his statement in the case linked to the excise policy scam on Jan 18 or 19. However, the CM, as in the past, wrote back to the agency on Thursday expressing inability to join the probe, and wanted to know in what capacity he was being called.
Kejriwal was earlier summoned on Jan 3, Dec 21 and Nov 2.
As reported by TOI, ED sources had explained the summons by pointing to its assurance given to the
Supreme Court
to wind up investigations within six months. The assurance came during the bail hearing of Kejriwal's senior colleague and former deputy CM of Delhi Manish Sisodia in Oct last year.
Interestingly, it was a poser by the SC as to why it had not examined the role of the AAP leadership when the alleged bribes paid by the liquor cartel were used for Goa polls, ED had spelt out its plan to turn the probe towards AAP boss Kejriwal
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