Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to get him arrested before the Lok Sabha polls so that he can be prevented from campaigning.
In a press conference at his official residence on Thursday, the Delhi chief minister spoke on the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons issued to him in connection with the Delhi excise case and said the investigating agencies could not find a single rupee irregularity in their two-year probe.
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“This investigation has been going on for the last two years, but irregularities of a single penny have not been found. They do not have any evidence against anyone. Nothing has been proven,” he said.
“….Now the BJP wants to get me arrested. My biggest strength is my honesty. Through false cases and fake summons, they want to malign my image. BJP’s purpose is not to carry out an investigation, their purpose is to stop me from campaigning in the Lok Sabha polls,” the AAP chief said.
The general elections are expected to be held between April and May to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha.
Kejriwal, who had skipped the ED’s third summons, questioned where the alleged money had gone, contending that no corruption had occurred. In a letter to the ED on Wednesday, Kejriwal described the ED’s summons as “opaque” and “motivated”, prompting the BJP to accuse him of being “staunchly corrupt”.
He said that it has been two years since the ED began its probe into the alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy and asked why he had been summoned right ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
“Why I was not summoned earlier? The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) summoned me eight months ago. I appeared in person and responded to all their questions. But, now two months before the LS polls, I am being summoned by the ED. The BJP’s purpose is not to question me, but to arrest me,” Kejriwal said.
Moreover, Kejriwal said the summons sent by the ED were illegal. “My lawyers told me that the summons is illegal. I have in detail explained to them how the summons is illegal. They have not replied to my objections, which means that they do not have answers to my objections, and they accept that their notice is illegal,” Kejriwal said.
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The AAP chief added that he would “extend all cooperation if a legal summons is issued to me”. ED has alleged that the Kejriwal-led AAP received kickbacks of ₹100 crore to finalise the excise policy and that a chunk of this was used in the Goa election campaign.
Kejriwal has skipped three ED summonses – on January 3, December 22, and November 2. In letters to the ED, Kejriwal has raised multiple objections – principal among them that it was not clear whether he was summoned as a witness or suspect; as chief minister or as AAP chief; and without any details on the line of questioning.
The anti-money laundering agency is likely to issue a fourth summons to the Delhi CM, while the party leaders claimed that the ED would arrest him. Following this, additional police forces were deployed near CM Kejriwal’s residence.
AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh are still in jail in connection with the case in which the ED has arrested 14 people.
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