In a revision of his earlier stand, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written to the Enforcement Directorate offering to appear before it via video conferencing after March 12 to answer questions related to the excise policy case. The AAP national convenor has so far skipped multiple summonses of the ED, calling them illegal and asking the agency to wait as the matter was in court.
This is the first time Kejriwal has said he is ready to appear before the Enforcement Directorate even if via video-conferencing. In his earlier replies to the ED, the CM had said that he is willing to answer the agency’s questions in the form of a questionnaire.
Kejriwal also has to appear before a city court on March 16. The court has sought his personal appearance in a complaint case filed by the ED over skipping of its summonses by him. The AAP has maintained that the ED should wait for the court verdict instead of sending repeated summons.
The party, in power in Delhi and Punjab, has also alleged that its leader Kejriwal is being “targeted repeatedly” for refusing to quit the Opposition’s INDIA bloc.
“The purpose of ED is not investigation. The BJP has been completely exposed. When the CM is ready to answer, why is the ED not questioning him? The purpose is to arrest Kejriwal. Let the questioning happen via video conferencing,” the AAP said in a statement, also demanding that the proceedings of the ED questioning be telecast live.
In written responses to ED’s previous summons, Kejriwal had termed them summons “illegal”, “unsubstantiated in law”, “politically motivated” and designed to stall the AAP’s election campaigns.
The Kejriwal government in Delhi will present its 10th budget on Monday, the last before the Lok Sabha elections this year and Assembly elections early next year. According to sources, the defining feature of the budget would be ‘Ram Rajya’. Ahead of the 2020 Assembly elections, Kejriwal had recited the Hanuman Chalisa to show that he is a believer of Lord Hanuman. Later in the Delhi Assembly, Kejriwal had vowed to bring in ‘Ram Rajya’ in the capital. He had defined the 10 principles like free and good quality health, education and security for women, among others, which would define the ‘Ram Rajya’.
Former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and communication in-charge Vijay Nair already behind bars for periods ranging for over one year to five months under various sections of the PMLA in connection with the alleged excise policy scam.
The Delhi government had implemented the new excise policy on November 17, 2021, but scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption. According to the investigating agencies, the profit margin of wholesalers was increased from 5 per cent to 12 per cent under the new policy.
The agencies have alleged that the new policy resulted in cartelisation and those ineligible for liquor licences were favoured for monetary benefits. However, the Delhi government has denied any wrongdoing and said the new policy would have led to an increase in the city government’s revenue.
After sending his reply to the ED, the Chief Minister was present in the Delhi Assembly as Finance Minister Arishi presented the budget. Speaking to reporters on the ED summons, Kejriwal said, “Before three summons, I had written that the budget session is on and I will not be able to come. Yet they keep sending summons. Last time, I had to be there after the LG addressed the assembly and today I had to be there as the budget had to be presented.”
“Now, I have told them that even though I consider your summons to be illegal, I am ready to answer all your questions because we have not done anything wrong and we are not hiding anything – you can ask me all your questions, ask me the questions through video conferencing,” he added.
The chief minister further argued according to the law, the proceedings of the Enforcement Directorate are judicial. “This means that the ED is like a Court. According to SC orders, in any Court, any party is allowed to be present via video conferencing If I am saying that this is my right, if I am saying that this should be allowed via VC then I understand, they will allow be to appear via VC and I will answer all questions according to my knowledge,” he added.
However, Kejriwal denied that he has not demanded the live telecast of the proceedings but said that he had no objection if the Enforcement Directorate decided to do so.
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