Delhi State Chief and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday skipped questioning from the federal Enforcement Directorate (ED) and opted to rather fly to poll-bound Madhya Pradesh for party campaigning.
Earlier, the AAP chief in his response to summons by the federal economic intelligence agency termed the order "illegal and politically motivated” while demanding its revocation.
“The said summons is not clear as to the capacity in which I am being summoned i.e. as a witness or a suspect in the above mentioned case,” Kejriwal stated in his two-page response to the ED.
Kejriwal also said that the summons also did not specify whether he was being summoned as an individual or in his official capacity as Delhi State Chief or as National Convenor of AAP. He said it appeared to be in nature of a fishing and roving inquiry.
The said summons appear to be motivated and issued for extraneous considerations. Simultaneously to the summons, in the afternoon of 30 October, BJP politicians started making statements that soon I would be summoned and arrested. It is thus apparent that the said summons were leaked to select BJP politicians to malign my image and reputation and have been issued at the behest of the ruling party at the Centre, Kejriwal stated in its response to the federal agency.
Terming the ED’s summons as vague, the AAP politician asked the agency to “recall” them.
Notably, anyone who has been summoned by the federal agency can skip it maximum three times. But after that, the agency can get a non-bailable warrant.
The federal economic intelligence agency, thus, is now likely to issue fresh summons to Kejriwal.