"BJP trying to tell us, leave INDIA bloc or Kejriwal will get arrested": AAP's Dilip Pandey on ED summons to party chief

New Delhi [India], February 27 : Following the issuance of an eighth summons to Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Chief Arvind Kejriwal by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with the alleged Excise Policy Scam case 2021-22, party leader Dilip Pandey attacked the central government ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claiming that it is trying to tell the AAP to 'either leave the INDIA bloc, or the party chief will get arrested'.
Earlier today, the central agency issued an eighth summons to Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal in a money laundering probe related to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 case, asking him to join the investigation on March 4.
"Everybody is now aware of why the ED is so desperate now. The matter is already pending in court, why can't the ED wait for the court's decision?" Pandey said while speaking to ANI.
"They (BJP) want us to either leave the INDIA alliance or see him (Arvind Kejriwal) in jail...We will not leave the INDIA alliance, no matter how much pressure they throw on us, we are not going to leave the alliance," added the AAP leader.
The fresh summons to the Delhi Chief Minister followed the seventh summons which he had skipped on February 26.
Kejriwal has so far skipped seven previous summons issued by the ED on February 26, February 19, February 2, January 18, January 3, November 2 and on December 22, calling them "illegal and politically motivated".
While skipping the seventh summons issued by the ED, AAP, in a statement, termed it "illegal", saying that the ED should stop sending summonses and wait for the court's decision as the probe agency has already approached the court on the matter.
A day after Kejriwal skipped the fifth summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate, the agency on February 3 approached a Delhi court against him for "non-compliance with the summons".
The case is based on a First Information Report (FIR) alleging multiple irregularities in the formation and implementation of the Delhi excise policy (2021-22) by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The policy was withdrawn after allegations of corruption.
In its sixth charge-sheet filed in the case on December 2, 2023, naming AAP leader Sanjay Singh and his aide Sarvesh Mishra, the ED had claimed that the AAP used alleged kickbacks worth Rs 45 crore generated via the policy for part of its assembly elections campaign in Goa in 2022.
Two senior AAP leaders -- Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh -- are already under judicial custody in the case. Sisodia, who was the then Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, was arrested by the CBI on February 26 following several rounds of questioning and on October 5, the ED arrested Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha member.