Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Monday skipped a summons by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking his presence for questioning in a case linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).
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Reacting to the summons, senior party leader and Environment Minister Gopal Rai accused the probe agency of “serving the political agenda of the BJP”, which is in power at the Centre.
The BJP, too, hit back at AAP, with its Delhi unit chief Virendra Sachdeva saying that the Chief Minister had “lost his honour” by repeatedly skipping ED summonses.
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The summons in the DJB case came as a double blow to Mr. Kejriwal, who has also been called for questioning by the ED for the ninth time on March 21 in an excise policy case. Till now, he has skipped all eight summonses issued by the agency in the excise policy case.
Double blow
Both notices to the CM were sent on Saturday, just hours after a Rouse Avenue court granted him bail in a case lodged by the ED against him for repeatedly skipping its summonses.
Mr. Rai told reporters that the AAP chief had already replied to the ED notices by terming them “illegal”.
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“The ED went to court against him. When the matter is in the court, what is the urgency of sending another notice?” he said.
The case
The DJB case is based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation alleging that former Chief Engineer Jagdish Kumar Arora had awarded a contract worth ₹38.02 crore to a private firm even though it did not meet the eligibility criteria.
The work was related to supplying, installing, testing, and commissioning electromagnetic flow meters.
In February, the ED had arrested Mr. Arora and a contractor, Anil Kumar Aggarwal.