Excise policy case: Kejriwal moves Delhi HC seeking no coercive action by ED

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has moved a fresh petition in Delhi High Court, seeking no coercive action against him in connection with the excise policy case.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued nine summonses to him in the excise case so far.

Delhi minister Atishi said on Thursday (March 21) that Kejriwal wants to join the investigations and cooperate with the ED but has approached Delhi High Court alleging that the ED wants to arrest him.

Atishi’s charge

“Delhi CM Kejriwal wants to join the ED investigation and cooperate with the agency. But we believe that the ED is not an independent agency. It does not want to conduct investigation. It is a political tool of the BJP,” Atishi charged in a video message.

“The ED wants to arrest Kejriwal by summoning him. If the intentions of the ED are clear, the agency should say in court that Arvind Kejriwal will not be arrested,” she said.

The probe agency’s aim is to arrest Kejriwal and stop him from campaigning for Lok Sabha polls, the Delhi minister alleged.

In court

On Wednesday, too, during a hearing in a related matter in Delhi High Court, his lawyers stated that they fear that the ED will arrest him and he is ready to appear before the agency if he is given protection.

In the ED’s last summons in the now-scrapped excise policy-related money-laundering case, the agency has called him to appear before it on March 21.

On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court sought the ED’s response on Kejriwal’s plea challenging the summons issued to him.

During the hearing, the Bench asked Kejriwal’s lawyers, “Why don’t you appear before the ED?”

In reply, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh were also arrested by the ED after being summoned. “We have an apprehension that ED will arrest him, but he is ready to appear if he is given protection,” he added.

(With agency inputs)