SC reserves verdict on CM Kejriwal’s plea against arrest

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s challenge to his arrest by the ED in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise scam but granted him liberty to move the trial court for regular bail.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta reserved its judgement after hearing senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who appeared for Kejriwal and the Enforcement Directorate, respectively.

“Arguments heard. Judgement reserved. Notwithstanding the same, and without prejudice to rights and contentions, the appellant can move the trial court for grant of bail in accordance with law,” the bench said in its order.

The top court perused the case files and statements of the witnesses and accused recorded after October 30, 2023, the day senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia’s bail plea was rejected. Sisodia is an accused in both the corruption and money laundering case linked to the alleged scam.

During the hearing, Raju claimed the probe agency has unearthed some personal chat messages between Kejriwal and some hawala operators.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who also appeared for the ED, said the alleged hawala operators have been arrested now and the chat messages have been recovered from them. Singhvi contested the claim and said the allegation was being made to prejudice the mind of the court.

“Is this submission for the court or the media? Why was he suppressing this fact till now? The arguments are being made to create a doubt in the court’s mind in the last minute,” Singhvi told the bench.

Raju claimed the probe agency has got evidence about money having been sent from Andhra Pradesh to Goa through hawala channels to help with the Aam Aadmi Party’s 2022 Assembly poll campaign.

The bench questioned Raju whether this “evidence” was mentioned in the “grounds of arrest” recorded in writing and given to Kejriwal.

“The probe agency is not supposed to share everything with the accused before the chargesheet,” Raju replied, adding that sharing every material with the accused at the time of arrest will jeopardise the investigation, delay the trial and there will be chances of witnesses being influenced.

He said under the PMLA and CrPC, the investigating officer is not supposed to share everything about the “grounds of arrest” with the accused or else the accused will start challenging the material at every level and there will be hundreds of petitions before the court.