BJP leader Harish Khurana on Friday hit out at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for skipping the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) summons for the fifth time, asserting that the former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren – who was arrested by ED in an alleged land scam case – did the same. According to Khurana, if the probe agency takes a strong step against Kejriwal, he will “try to play vendetta politics”.

“A person is evading ED summons for the 5th time, not following the law…if ED takes a strong step, then he will try to play vendetta politics, this is their (AAP) politics. Kejriwal has to answer a lot of questions…if the summons is illegal, why is he not approaching the court and getting it quashed?” the BJP leader questioned.

He added, “Hemant Soren did the same, he kept evading summons, then went to court and when he wasn’t successful, he had to appear before ED…I want to tell Kejriwal that no matter how much you evade, one day you will have to appear before ED.”

The probe agency summoned Kejriwal for the fifth time to appear before it for questioning in connection with the Delhi excise policy case on Friday, but he did not depose. Calling the summons “illegal”, the AAP alleged that the BJP wants to topple its government in Delhi by getting Kejriwal arrested.

The CM was first summoned by the ED on November 2, but he skipped it alleging that the notice was “vague, motivated and unsustainable in law” and instead flew to Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh to address a political rally. The probe agency called him for questioning on December 21, however, Kejriwal went for a 10-day Vipassana meditation course at a center in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district. This year, he was summoned two times – once on January 3 and then on January 18.

What is the Delhi excise policy case?

The Delhi government had come up with an excise policy in 2021-22 aiming to revitalise the city’s flagging liquor business by replacing the sales-volume-based regime with a license fee for traders. However, it was scrapped after Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena sought a CBI probe into the policy alleging irregularities.

According to the ED, AAP received kickbacks to the tune of ₹100 crore to finalise the excise policy, and a large chunk of this money was used by the party in its Goa election campaign. The central agency in its charge sheet said that there was an involvement of certain ‘South Group’ in the alleged irregularities.

So far, the probe agency has arrested top AAP leaders – former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh in the case.