Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party’s National Coordinator Arvind Kejriwal rejected the 7th summons sent by the Enforcement directorate in the money laundering case related to the Liquor Scam. The Aam Aadmi Party has said that the enforcement directorate should respect legal procedures as the case is in court.
Delhi’s Liquor policy 2021
Delhi is ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The Delhi government implemented a new liquor policy in November 2021. The policy aimed at increasing the revenue for the government and at the same time to reduce liquor mafia’s & black market sales of liquor. According to this policy, Delhi was divided into 32 zones and each zone allotted a maximum of 27 vends. Open bid was conducted for liquor vends but there was no individual license or bidding was allowed. Many organizations opposed this policy, so the government rolled back this policy in July 2022.
Allegations on AAP government
In this case, a controversy arose over the liquor policy that the AAP government involved in undue financial favours to the liquor license. Both CBI and ED filed a case separately and started investigation. Many AAP leaders including party’s Convenor, Aravind Kejiriwal were accused.
Because of these allegations, Manish Sisodia, who was the former Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Excise Department at that time, was arrested by CBI on 6 February. After this arrest, ED also arrested him on 9 March. Kejriwal had already been summoned 6 times by the enforcement directorate in connection with the case. However, Kejriwal, who claims that the summons is illegal, has not appeared for the hearing so far.
In this situation, a case has been filed in the trial court in Delhi on behalf of the ED regarding this matter. Then the court ordered Kejriwal to appear in court on the 17 February. He appeared in court that day through video and explained that he would not appear in court as the floor test was held in the Delhi Assembly. Accepting this, the court has adjourned the next hearing of the case to March 16.
Summons to Kejiriwal
Meanwhile, the Enforcement directorate had sent a summons to the Delhi Chief Minister for the 7th time to appear for investigation in this case. But Kejiriwal refused the summon and said that, “the matter is currently in the court and the next hearing of the case is scheduled to take place on March 16. Therefore, the enforcement directorate should stop issuing summons every day and wait patiently for the court’s decision.”
