The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday in the Delhi excise policy case.
Officials said on Friday that Kejriwal has been asked to be present at the CBI headquarters at 11 am on Sunday to answer queries of the investigating team. Former Delhi Deputy CM and AAP leader Manish Sisodia is already in jail in the case.
Following the summon, the AAP termed the CBI action "a conspiracy to arrest" Kejriwal. The party further said that Kejriwal will appear before the CBI and neither AAP nor he will bow down.
It is alleged that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP. The policy was later scrapped.
"It was further alleged that irregularities were committed, including modifications in Excise Policy, extending undue favours to the licensees, waiver/reduction in licence fee, the extension of L-1 license without approval etc...It was also alleged that illegal gains on the count of these acts were diverted to concerned public servants by private parties by making false entries in their books of accounts," a CBI spokesperson had said after FIR filed on August 17, 2022.
(With PTI inputs)
