Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Divya Malhotra asks Delhi CM to appear before the court on February 17; AAP chief has skipped all ED summons till now
The Rouse Avenue court here on Wednesday issued a summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief was not complying with the agency’s repeated notices in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy scam.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Divya Malhotra took cognisance of the ED’s complaint and asked the Delhi Chief Minister to appear before the court on February 17.
“….from the contents of the complaint and the material placed on record, 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,” the court said.
The court noted that the copies of the summons in question requiring Mr. Kejriwal’s attendance to give evidence in connection with the investigation or proceedings under PMLA have been addressed to the respondent/proposed accused at his official email address.
“…the respondent of the summons i.e. the proposed accused was legally bound to attend in-person in pursuance of the same but purportedly he failed to do so,” the court stated.
‘Summons are illegal’
Reacting to the court’s order, senior AAP leader and Delhi Minister Atishi said: “We respect the court order. We will keep our side before the court on why Arvind Kejriwal did not appear before the ED on the five summons. We will tell the court how the five summons were illegal.”
She said that the BJP first holds a press conference and tells the public that the ED will arrest Mr. Kejriwal and immediately after the press conference, ED’s summons comes.
“This shows that the summons is a political conspiracy to call Arvind Kejriwal to the ED office and arrest him. The ED is not doing any investigation. The ED has only one intention. The BJP wants to use ED to crush AAP, defame Arvind Kejriwal and destroy him politically,” Ms. Atishi added.
The AAP leader said that the courts in the country should know how the Central government is using the ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against its political opponents.