Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who skipped questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in the alleged liquor scam this morning, went campaigning in Madhya Pradesh several hours later. At rally in Singrauli, he said he could be arrested by the time the elections results are announced and exhorted his audience to vote for the Aam Aadmi Party.
"Standing in Delhi, they are threatening every day that they will arrest Kejriwal.... It doesn't matter if he arrests us, Kejriwal is not afraid of going to jail. You will arrest Kejriwal's body... how will you arrest Kejriwal's thoughts? You will arrest this one Kejriwal... how will you arrest thousands, lakhs and crores of Kejriwals?" he said.
"The day the election results come, I don't know whether I will be in jail or out... But wherever I am, I should hear that people are saying that Kejriwal had come to Singrauli and the people of Singrauli sent him back after giving a historic victory," he added.
Mr Kejriwal was asked to appear at the ED office in Delhi at 11 am, but he wrote to the agency asking them to withdraw the summons. The ED's notice is "illegal and politically motivated, sent at the behest of the BJP," he wrote.
"The said summons does not specify whether I am being summoned as an individual or in my official capacity as Chief Minister of Delhi or as National Convenor of AAP and appears to be in the nature of a fishing and roving inquiry," he added in the two-page letter.
In the backdrop of the arrest of several AAP leaders and Delhi's former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, AAP has alleged that the Centre wants to arrest Mr Kejriwal in a politically motivated case. The BJP's sole motive is to short-circuit the party, which has won massive victories in Delhi and Punjab, it said.