'May Consider Interim Bail For Arvind Kejriwal For Election Period': Supreme Court To ED

The Supreme Court on Friday heard Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea, challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

Hearing the matter, the bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said that it may consider the question of interim bail for Kejriwal because of the elections.

Justice Khanna asks ED to be ready for the possibility of interim bail for Delhi Chief Minister.

However, the bench cautioned lawyers that the Court is just being open about it.

“Do not assume anything. Do not read anything into it. We are not saying anything either way…The Court is just being open about what is in its mind. It does not want to catch the parties by surprise. It may or may not grant interim bail, but is ready to consider the possibility,” Justice Khanna said.

The Court also asked whether Kejriwal should be signing any files and adjourned the matter till May 7.

During the previous hearing on April 30, the apex court questioned the Enforcement Directorate on the timing of Kejriwal’s arrest ahead of Lok Sabha election 2024 and sought a reply from the agency.

Asking Additional Solicitor General SV Raju to reply to the question of the timing, the court said, “Life and liberty are exceedingly important. You can’t deny that.”

The bench, which asked Raju several other questions, asked the probe agency to reply on the next date of hearing of Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest in the money laundering case related to the excise policy scam.

Kejriwal is currently lodged in the Tihar jail here under judicial custody after his arrest on March 21 in the case. The top court issued ED a notice on April 15 and sought its response to Kejriwal’s plea.

On April 9, the high court upheld Kejriwal’s arrest, saying there was no illegality and the ED was left with “little option” after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation.

The matter pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government’s now scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.

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