Kejriwal Ducking ED Summons: Real test of AAP’s resilience starts now

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.

Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal believes in keeping his friends and foes guessing about his moves till the last moment and he did the same with the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Unlike many long-time politicians, he appears to be a hard nut to crack.

Till Thursday morning, it appeared he was all set to appear before the ED in response to the summons issued to him in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.

A Cat And Mouse Game

The summons to Kejriwal coincided with the Supreme Court rejecting his deputy Manish Sisodia's bail plea and observing that there is “material and evidence” to “tentatively” support the charge that 14 wholesale liquor distributors earned “excess profit” of Rs 338 crore in about 10 months when the now-scrapped excise policy was in operation.

In fact, several AAP leaders, including Delhi ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj anticipated Kejriwal's arrest during the questioning by the ED. Addressing a poll rally at Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, Kejriwal himself claimed that he could be arrested by the time the election results are announced on December 3.

Then came his googly. In a strongly worded letter to the ED, the AAP leader asked it to withdraw the summons he alleged were "illegal and politically motivated, sent at the behest" of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Apart from seeking clarifications regarding the summons, he also expressed his inability to appear before the ED in view of the upcoming assembly elections in five states.

The ED had not anticipated his move given that he had appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in April this year in connection with the same case without creating any fuss.

The Hemant Soren Precedent

Clearly, Kejriwal had consulted legal experts and he also seemed to have taken a cue from Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren who has so far skipped five ED summons in connection with the alleged grabbing of land in the Bariatu area of Badgai in Ranchi.

Soren was to appear before the central agency first on August 14, the second summons were issued to him for August 24, third for September 9, fourth for September 23 and the fifth for October 4.

Soren is apparently avoiding the ED questioning for he hopes that the courts will dismiss the summons.  He had earlier moved the Supreme Court challenging the summons. The Apex Court instead asked him to approach the Jharkhand High Court. He had filed a plea last week, but the Jharkhand High Court is yet to take up the matter.

Like Soren, Kejriwal too is adopting the delaying tactics, hoping to get some relief from the courts.

All Eyes On Judiciary

He is perhaps going to wait it out till the judicial pronouncement on review petitions against a July 2022 verdict, which gave unbridled powers to the ED to summon and arrest individuals and raid private property under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

A three-member Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, is hearing a batch of review petitions, alleging that the Apex Court’s July 27, 2022, judgment has deprived an accused person of some basic rights, which includes even a copy of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR).

As far as the ED is concerned, it can issue fresh summons to Kejriwal who then will have to take a call on whether to move the courts challenging such notices. However, his legal options are limited as there is no immunity to a chief minister in the PMLA.

As a last resort, the ED too can approach the court, seeking a non-bailable arrest warrant against Kejriwal on the grounds that he is not cooperating with the agency in the investigations.

If AAP Is Charged Will Election Commission Act?

There is also a possibility that the AAP might eventually be named as an accused in the case. In its supplementary chargesheet, the ED has alleged that the AAP used the kickbacks received under the Delhi excise policy to fund the Goa assembly elections in 2022.

In that case, the ball will be in the court of the Election Commission to decide on the future course of action in the matter as there are no specific rules on what the poll body will do if a political party is accused of any legality. It remains to be seen if the panel can invoke certain provisions of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order to suspend or withdraw the AAP’s recognition.

That will be the real test of the AAP’s resilience to stay afloat as a political entity. It may have overcome the setbacks in the past with flying colours especially after its disastrous 49-day government in Delhi or debacle in the 2017 assembly elections in Punjab, but this appears to be the stiffest challenge for the AAP so far with its top leadership already in jail.

Aurangzeb Naqshbandi is a senior journalist who has been covering the Congress for 15 years, and is currently associated with Pixstory. Views are personal, and do not represent the stance of this publication.