Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appeared before a Delhi court on Saturday in connection with a complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against him over non-compliance with its summons in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped excise policy.
Kejriwal appeared before the Rouse Avenue court via video conferencing. His advocate had sought exemption from personal physical appearance, which the court granted.
On February 7, the court had issued summons to Kejriwal for February 17, noting that prima facie the AAP chief was "legally bound" to comply.
In its complaint, the ED has alleged that the Delhi chief minister intentionally did not want to obey the summons and kept on giving "lame excuses".
From the contents of the complaint and the material placed on record, prima facie offence under Section 174 of the IPC is made out and there are sufficient grounds for proceeding under against accused Arvind Kejriwal...
"Accordingly, issue summons to accused Arvind Kejriwal for the offence under Section 174 of the IPC for February 17, 2024, the judge had said.
Section 174 relates to non-attendance in obedience to an order from a public servant.
The ED had on February 3 filed a fresh complaint case against Kejriwal for non-compliance of its summons.
Kejriwal had moved a motion of confidence in the assembly on Friday.
The motion will be discussed in the assembly on Saturday in presence of ruling AAP MLAs and Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri since seven of the eight BJP legislators were suspended for the remainder of the session for allegedly interfering during the Lt Governor's address on Thursday.
This is the second time that the Kejriwal government has sought a trust vote in the 70-member assembly. In the current assembly, the AAP has 62 MLAs while the BJP has eight.
Accusing the BJP of trying to poach his party MLAs under 'Operation Lotus', Kejriwal said the AAP checked with all its legislators and found that seven of its legislators were approached, but none of them accepted the offer.
He also claimed that the Delhi excise policy case was false. Kejriwal's trusted aides - Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh - are in jail in connection with the excise policy case.
