Court summons Kejriwal over complaint filed by ED

A Delhi court on Wednesday summoned chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on February 17, calling for his personal appearance while observing that the Aam Aadmi Party leader was "legally bound" to join an investigation being conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the Delhi excise policy case.

- Deepankar Malviya

The order by the Rouse Avenue court came on a complaint, filed by the federal agency on February 3, that Kejriwal had not appeared for questioning despite five summons being issued to him. The Delhi CM has maintained that the ED summons were vague, illegal, and politically motivated.

"By virtue of Section 50(3) of the Act, the respondent of the summonses i.e. the proposed accused was legally bound to attend in person in pursuance of the same but purportedly he failed to do so," additional chief metropolitan magistrate Divya Malhotra said in an order on Wednesday.

The judge noted that, at the face of it, an offence of non-attendance despite an order from a public servant was made out against Kejriwal. "Prima facie offence under Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, is made out and there are sufficient grounds for proceeding under Section 204 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, against accused Mr Arvind Kejriwal," the court said in its order.