The Enforcement Directorate will likely move the Delhi high court today against regular bail granted to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal by the city’s Rouse Avenue court in the excise policy case.
On Thursday, vacation judge Nyay Bindu granted bail to the Aam Aadmi Party chief – who has been in judicial custody since March – on a bond of ₹1,00,000. As the Rouse Avenue court refused to entertain ED’s request to postpone the process of filing the bail bond for 48 hours, the agency will likely move a plea against the judgement in the higher court on Friday morning, reported ANI.
Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the agency on March 21 in connection with a money laundering probe linked to the now-scrapped liquor policy.
On May 10, the Supreme Court had granted a 21-day interim bail to Kejriwal in view of the Lok Sabha elections. The AAP chief surrendered before the Tihar Jail authorities on June 2.
Arvind Kejriwal had first moved the Delhi high court to challenge his arrest. The court, however, upheld the agency’s action saying it was left with no other option as the Delhi chief minister had skipping successive summonses.
He applied for a regular bail last month after the Supreme Court’s office refused to entertain his plea to extend his interim bail.
Opposing the bail application, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju alleged that the kickbacks received by AAP leaders for formulating a policy favouring certain business interests, had been funneled into the party’s election effort in Goa through Hawala channels. He alleged that Kejriwal had been in touch with Hawala dealers.
The bribe money was sent by one Vinod Chauhan and was received by Chanpreet Singh Rayat, who had been handling the election campaign of AAP in Goa, he added.
He also claimed Arvind Kejriwal had stayed at the Grand Hyatt in Goa in November 2021. The bill was paid by Singh from his bank account.
The agency claimed it was Chanpreet who received ₹45 crore from Hawala operators.
Kejriwal’s lawyer told the court that the agency had not furnished any evidence proving AAP ever received ₹45 crore.
Chanpreet did not say anywhere that he had paid for the AAP election or that he collected proceeds of the alleged crime, he argued.
The lawyer appealed to the court to not consider Arvind Kejriwal as “someone special” while considering granting bail.
Meanwhile, a war of words broke out between the Opposition’s INDIA bloc and the ruling BJP after Arvind Kejriwal’s bail.
Prominent lawyer and Rajya Sabha member, Kapil Sibal said bail to Kejriwal was long overdue.
“From the prosecution’s standpoint now that elections are over, (there was) no need to keep him in jail. The justice delivery system has been unfair,” he wrote on X.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the bail was the victory of truth.
“The bail of Delhi’s popular chief minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal ji is another victory of truth. The power and unity of the ‘India Alliance’ is going to liberate the people of India from the painful rule of BJP. Very soon India will form a coalition government,” he said.
AAP Legal Cell’s state president Sanjeev Nasiar alleged that the ED was working under “someone’s pressure.”
“Truth has won. This case was false, it was a conspiracy of the BJP. This is a huge win for AAP, for the country and all of us. ED has no proof against any of our leaders and they are working under someone’s pressure. They wanted to finish the political career of Arvind Kejriwal but they failed,” he said.
AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar claimed that regular bail in a PMLA case was nothing less than an acquittal.
“This case is completely fake, the whole case has been written in the BJP office. We are very grateful to the court for giving a historic verdict,” Kakkar said.
The BJP, meanwhile, said the defeat of the AAP-Congress alliance in Delhi in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls represent the people’s view on the allegations.
“The bail granted to the Delhi chief minister was part of the judicial process. In a democracy, the final verdict on any politician is given by the people, who have already expressed their view by defeating the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress alliance,” Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said in a statement.
All seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi were bagged by the BJP.
With inputs from ANI, PTI
