Rama Krishna Sangem
Now jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal hasn’t been able to get any immediate relief from the Supreme Court on April 15, Monday. The SC sought response from the Enforcement Directorate on a plea by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging his arrest in a money-laundering case stemming from the alleged excise policy scam.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta issued notice to the ED on Kejriwal’s plea challenging the Delhi High Court order that had upheld his arrest in the case. Supreme Court asks ED to file its response on or before April 24. Supreme Court posts the plea of Kejriwal on the week commencing from April 29.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Kejriwal tells the Supreme Court that the arrest was made to disable him from functioning as the CM of Delhi and also campaigning for his AAP in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The bench asked the ED to file reply to the plea by April 24, and said the matter would be heard in the week commencing April 29.
Setback to Kejriwal
The high court had on April 9 upheld his arrest in the money-laundering case, saying the ED was left with “little option” after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation. The high court had dismissed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader’s petition challenging his arrest by the ED and subsequent remand in the federal agency’s custody.
The matter pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 that was later scrapped. Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21, hours after the high court refused to grant him protection from coercive action by the federal anti-money laundering agency.
Kejriwal is in currently lodged in Tihar Jail. The SC decision to seek ED’s response in about 10 days is a sort of disappointment to the CM and his party. They expected some immediate relief from the apex court so that the CM can participate in the election campaigning.
