The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has issued fresh summons to the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam, asking him to depose for questioning on January 18 this time.

It is for the fourth time that the federal probe agency has summoned the Aam Aadmi Party convener in this connection, while Kejriwal has so far skipped the previous three summons that were sent to him by the agency, since October last year.

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Earlier, in his response to the summons by ED that were issued for him to depose on January 3, the Delhi CM had stated that he was unable to appear as the federal agency’s summons were not clear on whether in which capacity he was been asked to join the questioning and the ED had not responded to his previous replies given in connection with the first two summons.

He had in his reply to ED had said that the summons did not mention any document or information required from him, while he had also urged the ED to “kindly” respond to his previous replies to clarify its position enabling him to understand the real intent, ambit, nature, and the scope of the related investigation for which he is being called.

In his previous reply to the summons, Kejriwal had conveyed to the federal agency that he would happily respond to a questionnaire on the information and documents he could share with the agency.

The CM had also mentioned that he was busy with Rajya Sabha elections and the forthcoming Republic Day preparations.

Earlier, Kejriwal had also called the summons as ‘unsustainable’ in law, claiming they were politically motivated.

Meanwhile, the AAP has again questioned the timing of the probe agency’s summons to their leader as the notices were sent on the very next day of the announcement about his Goa visit between January 18- 20 in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Speaking about the issue while addressing the media, senior AAP leader Gopal Rai on Saturday alleged that the timing of the probe agency’s notice was not a coincidence, but, a bid to prevent the AAP chief from campaigning for the forthcoming general elections.

” The BJP does not in any way want any opposition leader to campaign in the Lok Sabha elections. Therefore, the BJP has made ED its tool to stop opposition leaders from campaigning,” Rai alleged.

Earlier, the AAP had blamed the Centre for summons alleging that all this is part of a conspiracy against the party and its leaders to spoil their image ahead of the upcoming elections and the probe agency was being used as a weapon by the ruling dispensation in Centre.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal was issued the first summons by ED in October 2023, asking him to appear on November 2, and then subsequently on sent on December 18, asking him to appear for questioning on December 21, and the third time the summons were sent on December 22, asking the AAP chief to join questioning on January 3.