The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on petitions filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal challenging the trial court order summoning him in the Delhi Excise Policy case.
Justice Ravinder Dudeja ordered the ED to file its responses to the two pleas filed by Kejriwal.The Court said that the ED can state its preliminary objections in the affidavit.The matter will be heard next on September 10.The ED filed the complaint cases against Kejriwal after he failed to join the investigation in the excise policy case despite issuance of summons to him under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)On ED's complaint, the magistrate court issued two summons to Kejriwal.
In his plea, Kejriwal has challenged the magistrate court summons as well as the September 17, 2024, decision of the sessions court which had dismissed his challenge to them.Special Counsel for ED, Zoheb Hossain, raised a preliminary objection to the maintainability of the petition.He said that a plea was rejected on similar grounds earlier and a second revision petition cannot be entertained.The money laundering case in which Kejriwal was summoned by the ED stems from alleged irregularities in the framing of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy of 2021-22.
The case involves allegations that several Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, including Kejriwal, were involved in deliberately leaving loopholes in the excise policy in exchange for kickbacks from liquor lobbies. Both the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED is investigating the case. The investigation agencies have alleged that the funds garnered from this exercise were used to fund the AAP's election campaign in Goa.
Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21, and later by the CBI as well in June. The Supreme Court on July 12 granted him interim bail in the ED case. On September 13, he was granted bail in the CBI case.At the outset, the ED's counsel raised a preliminary objection over the maintainability of the petition and contended that this petition was in the form of second revision petition filed under the garb of a Section 482 (inherent power of high court) CrPC petition, which was not permissible.
The high court asked the ED's counsel to mention all his objections, including preliminary objection, in his reply and listed the matter for hearing on September 10.Kejriwal has challenged a special court order dated September 17, 2024, by which his revision petition against a March 7, 2024, order of a magisterial court summoning him was dismissed.Besides, he has challenged a sessions court order dated December 20, 2024, which upheld an October 24 order of a magisterial court refusing to transfer his case to another court.
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