Arvind Kejriwal
ED summons Arvind Kejriwal for third time in Delhi liquor policy case
New Delhi/IBNS: A day after Arvind Kejriwal skipped the Enforcement Directorate's second summons in the liquor policy case, the agency has now asked the Delhi chief minister to appear before it on Jan 3.
Kejriwal, who was summoned by the agency on Thursday, left for a 10-day pre-scheduled vipassana (meditation) retreat a day earlier.
If the AAP supremo skips the summons for a third time, the ED will have the option of seeking a non-bailable warrant against him.
Responding to the agency's summons for Thursday, Kejriwal had called it "politically motivated and illegal". The AAP chief had also said that he has lived his life through transparency and honesty and has nothing to hide.
He was earlier summoned on Nov 2.
Kejriwal had skipped that summon and has instead gone on to campaign for his party in Madhya Pradesh.
The AAP leader then wrote to the ED stating that he could not attend as he was busy campaigning for the election in Madhya Pradesh.
In April, the CBI questioned Kejriwal as a witness for nine hours, after which he slammed the agency.
"The CBI asked me 56 questions (but) everything is fake. I am convinced they don't have anything on us... not a single piece of evidence," he said after being quizzed at its Lodhi Road office.
The fresh summons to Kejriwal will also renew talk of his party being accused in this case, which would be an unprecedented first in Indian politics after the Supreme Court in October posed this question to the Enforcement Directorate - "why isn't the political party still not accused?"
The probe agency is investigating the Delhi excise policy which has handed over liquor shop licences to private players.
The CBI alleges that liquor companies and middlemen were "actively involved in irregularities in the framing and implementation" of the excise policy.
Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and Kejriwal's colleague in the party, Manish Sisodia, is already in jail in the same case as the prime accused.
A few days ago, the Supreme Court rejected the bail plea of Sisodia, who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26.
The AAP leader, who held several portfolios including education and finance in the city government, can reapply for bail if the trial proceeds at a slower pace, said the top court.
The agency also claims close associates of Sisodia - Amit Arora, Dinesh Arora, and Arjun Pandey - collected commissions from liquor licensees and delivered them to the accused public servants.
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