Kejriwal once again skips ED questioning, now in DJB case

NEW DELHI: Delhi CM

Arvind Kejriwal

skipped yet another

ED

summons on Monday, this time for recording his statement in connection with alleged irregularities in

Delhi Jal Board

and a related

money laundering

case where his

AAP

is accused of receiving bribes from a contractor through bureaucrats.
AAP called the summons motivated and illegal, and blamed the Centre for misusing ED to prevent Kejriwal from campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections.

Kejriwal, who has skipped eight summonses in the excise policy case, has been called again on Thursday in that case. The agency is running against a deadline committed before Supreme Court last year to conclude its investigation and begin trial.
In the

DJB case

, ED had claimed that bribes were received by AAP functionaries and used by the party for elections.

“Investigations and digital evidence show that Jagdish Kumar Arora (ex-chief engineer of DJB who was arrested) passed on bribes (received from contractors) to various persons, including persons connected with AAP,” ED had said after searches on the residences of Kejriwal’s secretary Bibhav Kumar and AAP treasurer N D Gupta in Feb.

Delhi minister Gopal Rai termed ED’s actions as serving the agenda of BJP and said the CM had already replied to the summonses saying they were illegal.

Stating that the matter related to summonses was in court, Rai questioned the urgency for ED to issue another one. “If BJP wants to arrest Kejriwal, it does not need summons,” he told reporters.
BJP said Kejriwal was “running away from the probe”. The party’s LS candidate from New Delhi, Bansuri Swaraj, said, “Different courts have rejected the bail applications of AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain. Kejriwal is indifferent to the fact…”