Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court on Saturday reserved the order on the interim bail plea moved by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal citing medical reasons in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise policy scam.
The court fixed June 5 for the pronouncement of the order on the plea seeking 7-day bail, while refused to pass the order today itself as requested by Kejriwal’s Lawyer.
Senior Advocate N Hariharan, who appeared for Kejriwal submitted that the interim bail was to campaign for his party (Aam Aadmi Party) which is a national party.
“I am out for 20 days and had I not done it, you would’ve said see he didn’t campaign and fell ill. It was a lot of stress due to the campaigning and you know that stress is a aggrevator of diabetes. What was alarming was that keto levels rose in the urine. The aspect of concern is the high level of sugar and the keto numbers,” Kejriwal’s advocate submitted in the plea.
Appearing for the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju submitted that Arvind Kejriwal suppressed facts including about his health conditions. During preliminary arguments, ED lawyers stated that they have objections to filing interim bail as well. “This court cannot modify the Supreme Court order. He’s on interim bail because the SC granted it, what he is asking here is an extension of the Supreme Court order,” the ED lawyers submitted.
“This interim bail plea is required to be dismissed as it is full of suppression of facts. The Supreme Court had granted Liberty to him that he can file regular bail but the liberty to seek an extension of interim bail was not granted to him. He has said that these tests require 7 days, but the nature of the test has been suppressed,” they further stated.
ED also raised maintainability issues on interim bail plea and submitted that instead of getting a medical test done, he was travelling across. Medical tests would take more than one hour.
ED further submitted that the applicant in fact has gained 1 kg weight and falsely claimed that he has lost 7 kg weight. The Registrar of the Supreme Court has passed a speaking order and the same has been suppressed by them. There is a reason for suppression and it is because he had been travelling for campaigning purposes, but he didn’t get the tests done then, ED said.
Recently Kejriwal through his legal team filed two different bail applications before the concerned court. His regular bail plea is listed for a hearing on June 7, 2024.
Earlier, appearing for ED, ASG SV Raju submitted that he’s campaigning in Punjab, his health did not hinder him when strenuous campaigning has been done. Last-minute bail is being filed. His conduct doesn’t entitle him to any bail.
Kejriwal earlier had moved the Supreme Court for an extension of interim bail. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected his plea stating that since he was given liberty to move the trial court for regular bail, the plea here is not maintainable.
Kejriwal had got interim bail from Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta on May 10 and was asked to surrender to Tihar jail on June 2. The bench had on May 17 reserved a verdict on his challenge to the validity of his arrest by the ED in the case. However, the court ordered that he shall not visit the Office of the Chief Minister and the Delhi Secretariat. Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21.
The Supreme Court further clarified that since the order is already reserved on the challenge to arrest, Kejriwal’s plea for an extension of interim bail has no relation to the main petition.
On May 28, the Rouse Avenue Court kept reserved the order on cognizance point on ED’s supplementary chargesheet (prosecution complaint) filed against Kejriwal in the case.
The court after hearing ED’s submissions, fixed the matter for pronouncement of order on cognizance point on June 4, 2024.
On May 17, 2024, Enforcement Directorate officials along with Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Naveen Kumar Matta filed the chargesheet in Rouse Avenue Court of Delhi.
The apex court was hearing Kejriwal’s appeal against a Delhi High Court judgement which dismissed his plea against arrest by the ED and his subsequent remand in the excise policy case. Kejriwal, while filing an appeal in the apex court had contended that his arrest after the announcement of the General Elections was “motivated by extraneous considerations”.
On April 9, the High Court dismissed his plea for release from jail and rejected his argument of political vendetta amid the looming Lok Sabha elections. The High Court had said that Kejriwal’s absence from nine ED summons over six months undermined any claims of special privilege as Chief Minister, suggesting his arrest was an inevitable consequence of his non-cooperation. (ANI)
