The Enforcement Directorate has lodged a fresh complaint before a Delhi court, seeking the prosecution of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for repeatedly ignoring multiple summonses issued to him in connection with a money laundering case, according to official sources on Wednesday.
This latest complaint focuses on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor failing to comply with summonses numbered 4 to 8 sent by the federal probe agency under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The matter has been scheduled for a hearing on Thursday in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Divya Malhotra.
Previously, the ED had approached a local court seeking Kejriwal’s prosecution for his non-attendance in response to the first three summonses issued to him in the money laundering case related to the now-defunct Delhi excise policy.
The court of ACMM Malhotra has slated the hearing for this issue, regarding summonses numbered 1 to 3, for March 16.
Kejriwal, 55, had deemed all ED summonses as "illegal" and informed the agency that he could be interrogated via videoconferencing after March 12.
“We have not done anything wrong nor are we trying to hide,” he stated at a press conference on March 4, the same day he was summoned by the ED for the eighth time.
The ED has filed the fresh complaint under Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in conjunction with Section 63(4) of the PMLA, which addresses intentional disobedience of any direction, along with sections 190(1)(a) and 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for non-compliance with Section 50 of the PMLA.
Similar action was taken by the ED against former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, who was held prima facie guilty of disobeying notices and asked to appear on April 3.
Kejriwal's name has appeared multiple times in charge sheets filed by the ED in the excise policy case. The agency alleges that the accused were in contact with Kejriwal regarding the formulation of the excise policy for 2021-22.
To date, the ED has arrested AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, party communications in-charge Vijay Nair, and several liquor businessmen in connection with this case.
The ED has alleged in its charge sheet that the AAP utilized “proceeds of crime” amounting to approximately Rs 45 crore in its Goa assembly polls campaign.
It is claimed that the Delhi government’s excise policy facilitated cartelization and favored specific dealers who purportedly paid bribes for it, an accusation consistently denied by the AAP.
Following its cancellation, Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the policy. Subsequently, the ED initiated a case under the PMLA.
