New Delhi, Mar 21 (PTI) Hours after the Delhi High Court denied relief to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, an Enforcement Directorate (ED) team reached his residence here on Thursday evening to carry out a search and serve him a summons to join the probe in an excise policy-linked money laundering case, officials said.
They said a six-member team of the federal probe agency, along with an escort of the Delhi Police, reached his official residence on Flagstaff Road in the national capital.
The ED action against Kejriwal, coming amid campaign for the Lok Sabha polls, drew strong reactions from his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The agency may arrest him or take him to its office in central Delhi for questioning, sources said, even though there was no official word on the agency’s likely course of action.
The high court did not grant any protection to Kejriwal from the agency’s action in the case, they said.
As fresh developments unfolded through the day, Kejriwal moved the Supreme Court against the high court’s order denying him any relief in the matter.
AAP leader and Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, who reached Kejriwal’s residence soon after the ED team’s arrival, told reporters, “It seems that the ED is carrying out raids. I have not been allowed to go inside. Its looks like ED is planning to arrest him.” According to officials, the ED team informed the staff at the chief minister’s residence that it has a search warrant to raid Kejriwal’s premises. They said the team will also serve summons and ask Kejriwal to join the probe.
As the ED officials carried out their action inside, additional Delhi Police personnel and Rapid Action Force (RAF) and CRPF teams were deployed around the chief minister’s residence.
The additional deployment was made as the ED sought additional security measures in anticipation of protests by AAP supporters, sources said.
The 55-year-old AAP chief had earlier skipped nine summonses issued by the agency in this case, the latest being for Thursday, March 21. He has called these summons “illegal”.
Earlier in the day, a Delhi High Court bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain refused to grant Kejriwal any protection from coercive action in the case.
The bench listed the AAP leader’s application for further consideration on April 22 when his main petition challenging the summons is fixed for hearing, and asked the Enforcement Directorate to file its response.
The case pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22, which was later scrapped.
AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh are in judicial custody in the case.
Kejriwal’s name has been mentioned multiple times in the charge sheets filed by the ED. The agency has alleged that the accused were in touch with Kejriwal for formulating the excise policy that resulted in undue benefits to them in return for which they paid kickbacks to the AAP.
Reacting to the ED action, AAP MP Raghav Chadha alleged a “big conspiracy” to arrest Kejriwal just before the Lok Sabha elections.
In a series of posts on X, the party said, “ED reached the house of Delhi’s son @ArvindKejriwal! BJP should know that it is trying to move the mountain in whose support the entire country stands today. The people of Delhi are watching everything. No one will sit silent today.” Using the hashtag #IstandWithKejriwal, it said, “The BJP can stoop down to any level to make Arvind Kejriwal bow down. The people of the country including entire Delhi are standing with their hero Arvind Kejriwal today. This dictatorship of yours will not last. And a Kejriwal will emerge from every house.” Kejriwal is also facing an ED case in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). PTI NES ACB SKL SMN
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