ED summons Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal again on January 18

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has again issued summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asking him to appear before the agency on January 18.

This is the fourth time Kejriwal has been summoned by the federal agency in connection with its ongoing money laundering probe into the Delhi Excise policy alleged scandal. Kejriwal was earlier summoned thrice by ED but he had previously declined to appear citing prior engagements linked to the now-concluded assembly elections.

He was then asked to appear on December 21 and January 3 but Kejriwal skipped the summons calling them “politically motivated and illegal”. In February a local Court had taken cognisance of the supplementary charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its money laundering probe into the Delhi government’s now-scrapped liquor policy.

The federal agency has alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) used the money raised from the Delhi liquor scam to fund the Goa election campaign.

“Investigation of the trail of this kickback so far has revealed that part of these funds was used in the election campaign of the AAP,” the agency had alleged in its supplementary chargesheet.The charge sheet had mentioned an alleged call between Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Indospirits owner Sameer Mahendru, an accused in the case, wherein Kejriwal allegedly asked him to carry on working with AAP communication’s incharge Vijay Nair.The agency had alleged in its charge sheet that Nair had arranged a meeting between Sameer Mahendru and Kejriwal over facetime where Kejriwal allegedly told the former that “Vijay is his boy and that Sameer should trust him and carry on with him.” Kejriwal, however, had described the allegations as “fiction”.