ED issues fresh summons to Arvind Kejriwal for questioning on Dec 21 in Delhi excise policy case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a fresh summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for questioning on December 21 in the excise policy-linked money laundering case, officials said Monday. He was first called by the federal agency to appear on November 2, but he did not depose alleging that the notice was "vague, motivated and unsustainable in law".

The summons to Kejriwal, the national convenor of AAP, pertain to questioning in the alleged Delhi excise policy case and for recording his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the officials said. It is alleged that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge repeatedly refuted by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The policy was subsequently scrapped and the Delhi lieutenant governor recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the PMLA. Delhi government officials had on Saturday said that Kejriwal will leave for a 10-day Vipassana meditation course at an undisclosed location on December 19. AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh were earlier arrested in the excise policy case.

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