The Delhi High Court on Saturday refused to hear on an urgent basis, the petition filed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate and ED remand in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy case.
The matter was mentioned before the Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, who refused to grant urgent hearing.
The petition will now be listed on March 27.
Earlier on March 23, Special CBI judge Kaveri Baweja of the Rouse Avenue Courts sent Kejriwal to ED custody till March 28.
Appearing for the national agency, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju alleged that Kejriwal was the kingpin of the Delhi excise scam and was directly involved in the use of proceeds of crime accounting to over Rs 100 crore.
The ASG contended that even during the time of search last night, Kejriwal did not give correct facts.
The agency sought 10-day custody of the accused on the grounds that it needed confrontation to recover the money trail. It was a fit case to grant remand, said the ASG.
Three Senior Counsels- Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Vikram Chaudhary and Ramesh Gupta appeared for Kejriwal.
Singhvi submitted that till yesterday, in the proceedings before the High Court, ED did not disclose that Kejriwal was being probed as an accused in the case.
He submitted that the threshold for arrest under PMLA was very high.
Singhvi contended that ED failed to show the necessity to arrest the incumbent Chief Minister of the national capital, noting that there was no direct evidence.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested the national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on March 21 from his residence after interrogating him for over two hours.