Time for courts to wake up to blatant misuse of PMLA: Sibal after ED summons Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal. File
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

It is time for courts to wake up to the blatant misuse of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal said on Wednesday (November 01), days after the Enforcement Directorate summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for questioning.

The probe agency was targeting leaders of almost all Opposition parties, he alleged, adding that the ED and denial of bail to leaders has become a “political weapon” in the hands of the government.

Mr. Kejriwal has been issued the summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and according to sources, the ED will record his statement in an excise policy-related case once he deposes at the probe agency’s Delhi office at 11 a.m. on November 2.

Mr. Sibal, a prominent Opposition voice and a senior advocate, in a post on X, said, “Kejriwal summoned by ED. ED targeting leaders of almost all political parties in opposition.”

“ED and denial of bail to leaders has become a political weapon in the hands of the government. Time for courts to wake up to the blatant misuse of PMLA,” the former Union Minister said.

In another post on Tuesday after the Supreme Court denied bail to Delhi’s former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the excise policy case, Mr. Sibal had said the INDIA bloc must speak in one voice as all Opposition leaders were being targeted.

“Supreme Court rejects Sisodia’s bail. Bail law on its head. The process is the punishment. All opposition leaders targeted. Send them to jail, proof can come later. The INDIA alliance must speak up in one voice,” he had said.

Delhi’s former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and AAP MP Sanjay Singh have been arrested by the ED in the excise policy case so far. This is the first time that Mr. Kejriwal has been summoned by the ED. He was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the case in April. 

Mr. Sibal, who was a Union Minister during UPA I and II, quit the Congress in May last year and was elected to the Rajya Sabha as an Independent member with the Samajwadi Party’s support.

He has floated a non-electoral platform ‘Insaaf’ aimed at fighting injustice.