Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal responded to the ED summons on Thursday, hours before he was supposed to be present at the ED office and called the ED notice illegal. “The summon notice is illegal and politically motivated. The notice was sent at the behest of the BJP. Notice was sent to ensure that I am unable to go for election campaigning in four states. ED should withdraw the notice immediately,” Kejriwal said. It is not clear whether the reply indicates that Kejriwal would skip the ED date today.
The AAP on Wednesday said it got to know that Kejriwal would be arrested after the questioning. In that case, the party and the Delhi government would run from jail, Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said. The party made it clear that it took into account the possibility of Kejriwal’s arrest on Thursday and put a plan B in place. But it is not known whether Kejriwal will attend the ED summons.
The case against AAP in the liquor policy became stronger after the Supreme Court denied bail to Manish Sisodia and said one aspect with regard to the transfer of ₹338 crore is tentatively established. Reacting to the Supreme Court verdict, Delhi BJP leader Manoj Tiwari said Kejriwal would be arrested soon.
On Thursday, another AAP minister Raaj Kumar Anand came on ED radar in a money laundering probe. It was, however, a different case coming from a charge sheet filed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on charges of false declarations in imports for customs evasion of more than ₹7 crore apart from international hawala transactions, sources said.
‘Today is not time for your drama’: BJP leader Shehzad Poonawala
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala reacted to Kejriwal’s scathing reply to the ED notice and said AAP must realise that today is not the time for Kejriwal’s drama, instead, he should go and answer the ED. “Are the courts against you? Is the Supreme Court making a vendetta against you? And when Congress leaders issue a statement that you (Kejriwal) are personally responsible for the sharab ghotala, are they also vindictive against you,” Shehzad Poonawala said in a video message.
