The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s response to an Enforcement Directorate (ED) plea challenging his acquittal in two separate cases linked to the excise policy case.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma issued notice to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener on two petitions filed by the ED against a trial court’s January 22 orders acquitting him, and posted the matter for hearing on April 29. In its complaint before the trial court, the ED had alleged that Mr. Kejriwal, who was then Chief Minister, deliberately disobeyed multiple summonses and failed to join the investigation. The agency also claimed that he raised “frivolous objections” and intentionally created grounds to avoid appearing before investigators. In its ruling, the trial court had held that the ED failed to establish that Mr. Kejriwal had intentionally disobeyed the summonses issued to him.
‘Grave error’
Challenging the acquittal, the ED’s counsel argued before the High Court that the trial court committed a “grave error”, particularly as Mr. Kejriwal received the summonses and did not respond to them, a fact that was not in dispute. The ED had moved the trial court in February 2024 over Mr. Kejriwal’s alleged non-compliance with summonses issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). According to the agency, he failed to appear despite being summoned multiple times on different dates in connection with the investigation. The money-laundering probe stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR into alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy for 2021-22, based on a complaint by then Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena.
