The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday said that it will present its stand in court on why the multiple Enforcement Directorate (ED) summonses against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were “illegal” and part of “political conspiracy”.
The party’s reaction came after Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court summoned Kejriwal on February 17 on a complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against him skipping summons in a money-laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.
AAP leader and Delhi Minister Atishi, while addressing a press conference, said that her party “respects the court’s order” and would present its stance on why the Chief Minister skipped five summonses issued by the probe agency.
“We respect the decision of the court and will present our side in front of the court bench. We will explain to the court why Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal did not go to the ED even after five summons from the agency,” Atishi said.
Furthermore, Atishi alleged that Enforcement Directorate summonses are “part of the conspiracy” to stop the Chief Minister from campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections and arrest him.
“By using investigating agencies like ED, the BJP wants the Delhi Chief Minister to go to its investigating agency’s office and get him arrested,” Atishi said.
“We will inform the court that all five summons sent by the ED were 100 per cent illegal and unlawful. After receiving each summon from the ED, the Delhi Chief Minister responded to them in writing, detailing the illegal components of the summons. He posed various questions through his responses to the ED, but the investigating agency never replied. Additionally, despite five summons, the ED could not prove the legality of its summons,” she said.
Atishi added that the lack of response from ED to the letters of Chief Minister Kejriwal is “proof that ED does not have any evidence to establish the legality of its summons”.
“We will also inform the court about how, just before the release of the summons from the ED, BJP, through a press conference, predicted that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal would go to jail. Immediately after the press conference, the ED sent summons to him. This chronology of events proves that ED summons are politically motivated and illegal. This shows that it is a conspiracy to call Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to ED and arrest him there,” she said.
The Delhi minister further said that the party would inform the court “how, along with these summons, conspiracies are also being hatched to topple the Delhi government”.
“Operation Lotus has begun again. People from the BJP are approaching AAP MLAs for poaching and offering them money and tickets. The MLAs are being told by the BJP that now Kejriwal has received summons from the ED and will be arrested soon,” she said.
The AAP chief on Friday skipped the fifth summons issued to him by the ED. The agency issued the summons to him last Wednesday.
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