Delhi Court Summons CM Arvind Kejriwal In Money Laundering Case, Asks Him To Appear On February 17

A Delhi Court on Wednesday issued summons to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on ED's plea for not complying with the summons issued to him in the money laundering case related to the alleged liquor policy scam.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Divya Malhotra of Rouse Avenue Courts has directed Kejriwal to appear before the court on February 17. 

The court took cognizance of the complaint case moved by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Kejriwal for not complying with the summons.

The court said that Arvind Kejriwal was legally bound to attend in person in pursuance of ED summons but purportedly he failed to do so.

“…prima facie offence under Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 is made out and there are sufficient grounds for proceeding under Section 204 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 against accused Mr. Arvind Kejriwal,” it said.

The court added that the summonses were addressed to Kejriwal at his official e-mail address which is prima facie evidenced from the fact that he sent replies to them wherein reasons for his non-appearance were set out.

”Accordingly, issue summons to accused Mr. Arvind Kejriwal for the offence under Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 for 17.02.2024,” it ordered.

The fresh complaint case has been filed by the Enforcement Directorate against CM Kejriwal for non-compliance of the summons received by him in the money laundering case.

So far, the ED has issued five summons to Kejriwal in the case over the last four months. However, the CM has skipped the summons claiming that they are illegal.

The fresh complaint case has been filed by ED under Section 190 (1)(a) of Cr.P.C. read with Section 200 of the Code, Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Section 63 (4) of PMLA, 2002.

CM Kejriwal has skipped the ED summons issued for November 02 and December 21 last year and January 03 and January 18. He has called the summons notices “illegal”.

Aam Aadmi Party leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh have been arrested in the money laundering case and are presently in judicial custody.

ED has alleged that the excise policy was implemented as part of a conspiracy to give wholesale business profit of 12 percent to certain private companies, although such a stipulation was not mentioned in the minutes of meetings of Group of Ministers (GoM).

The Central agency has also claimed that there was a conspiracy that was coordinated by Vijay Nair and other individuals along with South Group to give extraordinary profit margins to wholesalers.

Nair was acting on behalf of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, according to the agency.