SC to hear Delhi CM Kejriwal’s plea against arrest by ED on April 15

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea against a high court order that has upheld his arrest in a money-laundering case stemming from the alleged excise policy scam.

According to the cause list uploaded on the apex court’s website, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta will hear on April 15 Kejriwal’s petition challenging the Delhi High Court’s April 9 order.

While filing an appeal in the apex court, Kejriwal contended that his arrest after the announcement of the general elections was “motivated by extraneous considerations.”

The appeal stated that the sitting Chief Minister had been arrested in a “motivated manner” in the middle of the election cycle, especially after the declaration of the schedule of the Lok Sabha election in 2024.

In a massive blow to the chief minister, the high court on April 9 upheld his arrest in the money-laundering case, saying the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was left with “little option” after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation.

The high court has 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, which was later scrapped.

Seeking urgent intervention from the Supreme Court, the Chief Minister’s appeal stated, that it is an issue of illegal curtailment of Kejriwal’s liberty.

Kejriwal’s arrest also constitutes an “unprecedented assault on the tenets of democracy” based on “free and fair elections” and “federalism,” both of which form significant constituents of the basic structure of the Constitution, the appeal further stated.

The petition, while seeking the release of the Delhi Chief Minister from jail, said the ED has “allowed its process to be used and misused by vested interests” as an instrument of oppression to not only “invade the liberty of the political opponents” in the midst of general election, 2024 of such vested interests but also “to tarnish their reputation and self-esteem.”

Such lawlessness cannot be allowed to be perpetrated under any circumstances, it said while urging the apex court to declare Kejriwal’s arrest illegal.

“The petitioner’s arrest, therefore, bears serious, irreversible ramifications for the future of electoral democracy in India, for if the petitioner is not released forthwith to participate in the upcoming elections, it will establish a precedence in law for ruling parties to arrest heads of political opposition on flimsy and vexatious charges before elections, thereby eroding the core principles of our Constitution,” the petition stated.