"2-Year Probe - Why Summons Just Before Polls?" Arvind Kejriwal Slams BJP

Amid claims by his party of his possible arrest by the Enforcement Directorate today, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal has alleged that summons were issued to him so that he cannot campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. He said no corruption had taken place in the Delhi liquor policy case and reiterated his party's claims that the BJP is trying to arrest him. 

Sources have told NDTV that the agency's lawyers are examining Mr Kejriwal's response to the call for appearance, and fresh summons will be sent to him. 

"You must have heard about the liquor policy scam several times in the past two years. In these two years, all of the BJP's agencies have carried out several raids and arrested several people, but they haven't been able to find corruption amounting to even a single paisa. If there has actually been corruption, where have all the crores gone? Has all the money vanished into thin air," the Chief Minister asked in Hindi. 

Mr Kejriwal claimed that no corruption had taken place at all, and pointed out that money would have been found if that hadn't been the case. 

Hitting out at the BJP, the AAP chief, who has skipped three summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate, said, "They have jailed several AAP leaders in this fictitious case. There is no evidence against anyone and nothing is being proven... They are just putting anyone in jail. Now the BJP wants to arrest me. My biggest asset is my honesty and they are trying to tarnish my reputation by levelling false allegations and issuing baseless summons."

“My lawyers have told me that the summons are illegal, and I have laid out the reasons for this in detail in letters to the Enforcement Directorate. But they have not responded to a single reason, indicating that they don't have any answers… The BJP's intent is not investigation, they want to make sure that I cannot campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. The investigation has been going on for two years but they have summoned me right before the elections. Why didn't they summon me before,” he asked.

Pointing out that he had appeared before the CBI when the agency had summoned him eight months ago, Mr Kejriwal said the notice by the Enforcement Directorate two months before the elections indicates that the BJP wants to get him arrested in the guise of questioning.

'Trying To Break Up Parties'

Repeating an allegation made several times by his party and its allies in the INDIA bloc, the AAP chief said the ruling party is not going after the corrupt but simply trying to break up parties using central agencies so that it can get their leaders to join the BJP. 

"There have been several instances of leaders of opposition parties facing cases by Central agencies or serious allegations which are then closed or put in cold storage when they join the BJP... Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Vijay Nair are not in jail because they indulged in corruption, but because they refused to join the BJP," he said. 

"The country can't progress if they put honest leaders in jail and induct the corrupt into their party... This is wrong for our democracy. We need to stop this," he added.

'Scam Kingpin'

After he skipped the agency's summons for the third time yesterday, the AAP had put out Mr Kejriwal's response, in which he reiterated his objections that the call for appearance was "motivated and issued for vexatious considerations". He had said it was not clear whether he was being called as a witness or a suspect in the case.

Slamming the AAP chief, the BJP had called him the kingpin of the alleged scam. "Outright dishonest and sinister Arvind Kejriwal is shaking in fear and making one lame excuse after another to skip ED summons," BJP National Spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia had said.

"It won't be wrong to say that (Arvind) Kejriwal is afraid today because he knows that his arrest is imminent, he is aware that he is the kingpin and has no answers. That's why he is trying to evade the process of law," he added.