PANJIM /NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor, Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday skipped Enforcement Directorate’s summons to appear before the agency for the fourth time and reached Goa same evening to visit the Mohalla Clinic set up at Benaulim by AAP MLA Capt Venzy Viegas and meet his party’s volunteers in the State.
Kejriwal is accompanied by his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Singh Mann and Dr Sandeep Pathak from Delhi.
After arriving at the Mopa international airport, Kejriwal said that he has come to Goa at the invitation of two party MLAs, who are doing great work. He said that he will visit the first Mohalla Clinic set up by MLA Capt Venzy Viegas at Pulwaddo, Benaulim on Friday morning, followed by Velim constituency visit at St Sebastian Chapel, Chinchinim, where local MLA Cruz Silva will be present.
Kejriwal said that he will also meet party’s candidates, who contested 2022 Assembly polls and volunteers on Friday. This is Kejriwal’s first visit to the State since 2022 elections.
Earlier in the day, the Delhi Chief Minister said the ED summons issued to him were “illegal” and part of a political conspiracy to stop him from campaigning for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
He alleged that the entire exercise of serving him summons was being carried out to arrest him before the high-octane polls, expected in April-May.
The chief minister said he was issued a summons by the Enforcement Directorate last week for the fourth time, and asked him to appear before the agency on January 18 or January 19.
“The BJP is running the ED. They only intend to arrest me so that I cannot campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections,” he said. Kejriwal said he had sent his reply to the central agency.
“The four notices sent me are illegal in the eyes of the law. Such general, non-specific notices have been quashed in the past by the courts. I have repeatedly written to the ED saying the notices are illegal but they have not replied to me,” he told reporters. (With PTI inputs)
