ED moves Delhi court after Kejriwal skips 5th summons

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday approached a Delhi court against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for non-compliance with the summons issued to him in a money laundering case linked to the Delhi liquor excise policy of 2021-22.

The complaint by ED was filed before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Divya Malhotra, who put up the matter for further hearing on February 7. “Fresh complaint case for non-attendance in compliance of Section 50, PMLA, 2002, received by way of assignment,” the judge noted. The judge heard the part arguments and adjourned the matter.

In another development, during the Delhi excise case hearing before a Rouse Avenue Court on Saturday, the Court raised concerns over the conduct of the ED for presenting incomplete evidence and showcased video footage without audio from the interrogation of a key ‘Government Approver’ and his confrontation with implicated individuals. This revelation prompted the Special Judge to reprimand, questioning the absence of crucial audio elements, sources said.

During the hearing, the trial court discovered that the ED had only presented video footage, lacking audio from the interrogation of the ‘government approver’ (prosecution witness) and his confrontation with accused individuals related to the case. The court had previously instructed the ED to record all statements by the government approver on camera. Today, the court observed that the ED had recorded only video, subsequently removing the audio from the clip presented in the court.

The Judge questioned the absence of audio in the video feed. The ED’s lawyer argued that the court’s written order specifically mentioned recording statement only on video, but no mention was there of audio. In response, the defence lawyer pointed to a paragraph in the court’s order, emphasizing that in the succeeding paragraph, it was explicitly stated that the agency should capture video statements with audio included. This led to an accusation that the ED was blatantly lying and misleading the court, sources said.

The Government Approver’s signed statement did not align with what was originally said during the confrontation. The witness claimed discrepancies between his actual statements and the ED’s statements presented before the court. Taking note of the accusation, the Special Judge directed the ED to file their response by February 7.

Sources claimed that till date not a single evidence or rupee has been recovered in the alleged liquor case. The case relies solely on the statements provided by the Government Approver.

Already facing the heat from ED for skipping the summons five times, Kerjiwal is also on the radar screen of the Delhi Police crime branch in another case. On both Friday and Saturday, Delhi Police crime branch officials reached the chief minister’s house to serve him a notice in person pertaining to his allegations that the BJP was in touch with seven AAP MLAs to poach them.

On Saturday morning when the crime branch officials went to Kejriwal’s residence, AAP leaders who were present there asked them as to why they were insisting on serving notice only to the CM. The notice was finally given to officials at the residence, asking Kejriwal to reply within three days disclosing the names of the MLAs who had been approached by the BJP.

After Saturday’s drama, Kejriwal said that he sympathised with the crime branch officers. “What is their fault? Their job is to stop crime but they are asked to stage drama instead and that’s why crime is increasing in Delhi,’’ he wrote on X.

Kejriwal said, “Their political masters are asking me to reveal the names of the MLAs who have been approached for poaching. But they know better. Don’t they know everything? Not only in Delhi , you know how many MLAs you bought across the country to topple governments. Then why do this drama.”