Delhi excise policy case: ED issues 9th summons to Arvind Kejriwal for March 21

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued fresh summons to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal asking him to appear before it on March 21 for questioning in the money laundering probe linked to Delhi excise policy 2021-22 irregularities, people familiar with the development said on Sunday.
The fresh summons, ninth since November last year, have been issued as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader has failed to appear before the agency.
A Delhi court on Saturday granted him bail in connection with two complaints filed by ED against him for skipping the summons.
ED officials, however, said that the court has not given Kejriwal immunity from not appearing before the agency. “We have issued fresh summons to him for March 21,” said an officer.
They said they want to question Kejriwal to know more about the conspiracy in the Delhi excise policy, in which ₹100 crore was allegedly paid by a lobby of businessmen and politicians – referred to as the South Group – to the AAP leaders in lieu of liquor licences.
The federal agency on Friday evening arrested Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in the case and produced her before the court in Delhi on Saturday.
She is currently in ED custody till March 23 and there is a possibility that if Kejriwal appears before the ED, he might be confronted with her, said an official who didn’t want to be named.
The agency has claimed that AAP leaders were paid bribes of ₹100 crore in connection with the 2021-22 excise policy, which was implemented in November 2021 but scrapped months later after LG Saxena recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into alleged irregularities in the new regime.
The now-scrapped policy was aimed to revitalise the city’s flagging liquor business and replace a sales volume-based regime with a license fee for traders. It promised swankier stores and a better buying experience. The policy introduced discounts and offers on the purchase of liquor for the first time in Delhi.
In one of its six charge sheets, ED claimed that the excise policy was Kejriwal’s “brainchild”, though he has not been named as an accused in any of them.