Excise policy: Delhi HC notice to Kejriwal on ED plea over acquittal in summons cases

THe new delhi heights margaret court on midweek issued note in the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) petition challenging the trial court’s order acquitting former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in two cases filed by the agency over allegations of skipping its summons in the Delhi excise policy case.A bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma sought Kejriwal’s response in the ED’s petition against the January 22 order and set April 29 as the next hearing date.“The respondent has chosen not to appear despite service. Issue fresh notice and list it on 29.4.2026. Trial court record to be called in digitised form,” the court said in its order.The agency, while investigating Kejriwal in connection with the Delhi excise policy case, had issued three summons to Kejriwal in 2023. However, it later filed two complaints in February and March 2024, claiming that Kejriwal, instead of appearing before the agency, raised frivolous objections and deliberately created grounds showing he intentionally did not want to obey the summons.On January 22, the additional chief judicial magistrate Paras Dalal of Rouse Avenue Courts acquitted Kejriwal, holding that the ED issued summons to Kejriwal through the e-mail mode, which did not stand the test of law under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and was thus not tenable in law.Also Read: Excise case: Kejriwal, 22 others get time till April 2 to reply to ED’s petitionThe judgment also held that the prosecution failed to prove the accused’s intentional disobedience of the summons beyond a reasonable doubt, hence entitling the accused to exoneration.The court observed that while issuing the said summons to the accused, the investigating officer stated in his deposition that he issued a subsequent summons only when the reason stated by Kejriwal in his response had lapsed, “which showed that he did not verify the ground and merely waited for it to lapse.”ED’s lawyer Zoheb Hossain, along with Vivek Gurnani, submitted that the trial court committed a grave error while recording its findings, contending that the issue regarding the receipt of summons was never in dispute, as Kejriwal had responded to all the summons issued to him.Notably, on February 27, the trial court discharged Kejriwal, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, and 21 others in the case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) concerning the Delhi excise policy. An appeal challenging the order is presently pending before the high court.