Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor and Delhi State Chief Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that he will appear before the India’s economic intelligence agency for questioning virtually and proposed a date after March 12.
The response from Kejriwal came on the day he was asked to appear before Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the 8ер time in money laundering and corruption case related to the now-scrapped Delhi Liquor Policy.
Meanwhile, the ED has denied allowing the AAP chief to appear for questioning through video-conferencing saying that “there is no provision for interrogation through video-conferencing”.
Minister in AAP-led Delhi government Saurabh Bhardwaj said that the Delhi State Chief has decided to appear for the questioning virtually so that he could not be arrested “illegally”.
“While ED summons is absolutely illegal, the State Chief felt that BJP leaders and spokespersons are time and again accusing him of not answering the ED questions. We were always of the opinion that it is not about answering the questions, it's about the ED's intent of illegally arresting Arvind Kejriwal,” Bhardwaj said.
He further stated that therefore Arvind Kejriwal found a middle ground and decided to appear for questioning via video conferencing but if there is some conspiracy and they want to arrest him at any cost, then the ED will force him to come.
Meanwhile, the ruling BJP has hit out at Kejriwal and his party for trying to tell a federal agency what they should do.
“Absolutely absurd that a person who is facing a serious allegation of being the mastermind of a liquor scam is now going to determine how he will appear when he will appear and things which are unheard of in law,” BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonwalla said.
He jokingly added that Arvind Kejriwal was "doing ABCD": A for Avoid Summon, B for Bhaag Jao (run away) from Summon, C for Cover up for Summon and D for Divert from Summon.
Multiple ED Summons to Kejriwal
The ED has so far issued eight summons to Kejriwal in a money laundering and corruption case related to now-scrapped Delhi Liquor Policy. The probe agency wants to question Kejriwal on matters such as formulation of policy and allegations of bribery.
However, the AAP chief has skipped all the eight summons terming them “illegal and politically motivated”.
The latest summon was issued by the agency on 27 February asking Kejriwal to appear on 4 March.
AAP’s two prominent members Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh have already been arrested in connection with the case. Sisodia was arrested on 26 February last year while Singh was arrested on 5 October.