NEW DELHI: According to official sources on Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate may send Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a fourth summons to participate in the investigation into the purported excise policy case after reviewing his response regarding his refusal to appear before the agency. The 55-year-old national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) declined to appear before the ED for the third time on Wednesday. She claimed that the ED’s “non-disclosure and non-response approach” could not uphold the standards of justice, equity, or the law, and that the ED’s “obstinacy” amounted to the agency taking on the roles of jury, judge, and executioner. According to the sources, Kejriwal’s five-page response to the case’s investigating officer, which he sent on Wednesday, is presently being examined by the ED, which may dismiss his claims that the summons was unlawful. According to the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the agency might send Kejriwal its fourth summons, they said. Previously, on November 2, December 21, 2023, and January 3 of this year, he was asked to surrender. On Wednesday night, Atishi, the leader of the AAP, and a few other party leaders posted on ‘X’, suggesting that the ED might raid Kejriwal’s home and take him into custody. The Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021–22, which granted licences to liquor dealers, is accused of enabling cartelization and favouring certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it—a charge that the AAP has consistently denied. After the policy was abandoned, the lieutenant governor of Delhi suggested a CBI investigation, and the ED then filed a PMLA case.
