Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal Moves Supreme Court Against ED Arrest In Liquor Policy Case

NEW DELHI: In a latest turn of event, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, on Wednesday, approached the Supreme Court to seek quashing of his arrest in a money laundering case linked to the Delhi Excise policy.

The petition is likely to be mentioned before Chief Justice of India at 10.30 AM today for urgent hearing. 

Notably, Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from his residence in New Delhi on March 21 and the AAP chief is currently under judicial custody.

The plea filed by the Delhi CM challenging his arrest by the ED comes in the wake of a judgment pronounced yesterday by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of the Delhi High Court, upholding Kejriwal's arrest and subsequent remand.

While pronouncing the verdict, Justice Sharma had read the following excerpt in open court: "Material collected by ED reveals that Kejriwal conspired and was involved in formulation of excise policy and used proceeds of crime. He is also allegedly involved in personal capacity in formulation of policy and demanding kickbacks and secondly in the capacity of national convenor of AAP".

After hearing both sides and meticulously scanning through the record, the High Court judge came to the conclusion that enough material was placed on record by the ED, including statements of approvers and AAP's own candidate, to indicate that the Delhi CM was involved in the siphoning off of funds for Goa elections.

The court further held that this case also fell within the jurisdiction of Section 70 PMLA (which penalizes offences by companies).

According to the provision of this section, when a company contravenes PMLA, every person who at the time of the contravention was in charge of conduct of business of the company shall be deemed to be guilty.

ALSO READ: Assam: Rhino Roaming Freely Sparks Concern In Kaliabor Tea Estate

ALSO WATCH: