"Pressure being put on ED, CBI to send summons...": AAP leader Gopal Rai slams BJP

New Delhi [India], March 18 : After Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal skipped the ED summons, Delhi Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Gopal Rai on Monday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of pressuring the probe agencies to send summons to the AAP chief.
"The summons are politically motivated. ED and CBI sends summons due to the pressure from BJP. Delhi CM has time and again said that it is illegal...ED approached the court saying that the summon was legal. The court granted bail to him (Arvind Kejriwal). Why are they so restless to send summons again and again. Let the court decide if it is illegal or legal," Gopal Rai told ANI on Monday.
Earlier today, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal did not appeared before the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) money laundering probe.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party lashed out at the Delhi CM and said that the Delhi Jal Board case is bigger than the liquor scam.
Delhi BJP President Virendraa Sachdeva said, "He (Arvind Kejriwal) has done such a lot of corruption in Delhi that now only summons are left for him. He is running from the Delhi Jal Board summons. But everyone knows that the Delhi Jal Board case is bigger than the Liquor scam..."
BJP leader Harish Khurana reacted to Delhi CM skipping ED summons in a money laundering case linked to the Delhi Jal Board and said that the AAP chief once again proved that he has no respect for law.
"Once again, CM Kejriwal has proved that he has no respect for law. The ED summoned him in the Delhi Jal Board case. However, he is deliberately evading it. He might be hiding something since he is running from ED," he added.
The ED had issued another summons to Arvind Kejriwal for Monday in connection with the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) money laundering probe.
He was issued a summons by the ED under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the Delhi Jal Board case.
In February this year, ED arrested a retired chief engineer, Jagdish Kumar Arora, and a contractor, Anil Kumar Aggarwal, in connection with its money laundering probe into alleged irregularities in the tendering process of the DJB.
ED is investigating two separate matters of irregularities in the tendering process of the DJB, and its criminal case stems from an FIR of the CBI and from the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi government.
The CBI FIR alleged that officials of the DJB gave "undue advantage" to NKG Infrastructure Limited while awarding the tender to the company for supply, installation, testing, and commissioning of electro-magnetic flow metres in connivance with officials of NBCC (lndia) Limited.
The second allegation pertains to the ACB complaint of November 2022, where it was stated that DJB awarded a tender for setting up automotive bill payment collection machines (kiosks) in its different offices to facilitate consumers in bill payment.
Besides this summons, ED has also issued a ninth summons to Kejriwal in a money laundering probe related to irregularities in the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 case asking him to join the investigation on March 21.
Kejriwal has so far skipped eight previous summons issued by the ED in the Delhi Excise Policy case on March 4, February 26, February 19, February 2, January 18, January 3, November 2 and December 22, calling them "illegal and politically motivated". The ED wants to record Kejriwal's statement in the case on issues like the formulation of policy, meetings held before it was finalised, and allegations of bribery.