New Delhi: Supreme Court Grants Interim Bail To Arvind Kejriwal, But Delhi CM To Remain In Tihar Jail

NEW DELHI: In a significant development, the Supreme Court on July 12 granted interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case taken up by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and linked to the now-scrapped Delhi Excise policy. 

A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta referred Kejriwal's petition to a larger bench of the apex court to examine the question as to whether the need or necessity of arrest must be read as a condition into Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, under which he has been arrested.

However, the Aam Aadmi Party supremo will continue to remain in Tihar jail as Kejriwal has been separately arrested by the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) in relation to the same liquor policy case on June 25.

“We are conscious that Arvind Kejriwal is an elected leader and the Chief Minister of Delhi, a post holding influence and importance”, the judges underscored while granting him the interim relief. 

On the other hand, the ED during its proceedings had argued that there was evidence of money being sent to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) through hawala channels.

In its seventh supplementary charge-sheet, the probe agency accused the Delhi CM of being the “kingpin” and “key conspirator” in the alleged scam.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Arvind Kejriwal, refuted these allegations leveled against his client by arguing that the evidence being cited by the federal agency was not present during the Chief Minister’s arrest.

The appeal before the Supreme court was moved against a Delhi High Court verdict which upheld the Delhi CM’s arrest by recording a prima facie finding that there was adequate material, including statements of approvers, involvement of middlemen and references that money was transferred to the AAP for expenditure in the 2022 Goa elections.

Although a trial court in Delhi granted bail to Kejriwal on June 20, the High Court eventually stayed his release on the ground that the ED had not been given an adequate opportunity to argue its case. 

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