The Supreme Court today told the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that it may consider the question of interim bail for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal due to elections. The court asked the ED counsel to come prepared on this aspect when it takes up the matter on Tuesday.
A bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta stated that the court may or may not grant interim bail, but they must be open to ED as neither side should be taken by surprise.
The apex court further asked the ED to come up with possible conditions to be imposed on Arvind Kejriwal if interim bail is granted to the Chief Minister. Furthermore, the court also asked the ED to consider whether Arvind Kejriwal should be signing any files considering his position as the chief minister. Justice Sanjiv Khanna also clarified that the top court is merely putting the ED on notice about the intention to consider the plea for interim bail and is not expressing any opinion.
Referring to Additional Solicitor General S V Raju who appeared for the ED, the bench said that it does appear that they will not be able to complete the proceedings today, so they will keep it on Tuesday morning itself. It further added that if it takes time then the court will consider interim bail. Subsequently, ASG SV Raju referred to the interim bail granted to AAP leader Sanjay Singh and asked the court to look at the statements he is making.
The Additional Solicitor General pointed out that they had not filed any application for interim bail. To this, the court clarified that they are not saying anything but they would like to hear ED on the question of interim bail because of the elections.
Meanwhile, Senior Advocate Abhisekh Manu Singhvi appearing for Arvind Kejriwal said that the last summons had come to the Chief Minister on March 16 making it clear that he was neither a suspect nor an accused till that date. He further questioned what changed drastically when he was arrested on March 21?
The Senior Advocate mentioned that there was no new material to arrest him. He said that all the evidence on which Arvind Kejriwal was arrested is pre-2023, middle or end, available since July 2023.
The Chief Minister and AAP national convenor was arrested on March 21 by the ED in a money laundering case linked to the national capital’s now-scrapped excise policy. So far, all his bail pleas have been rejected and the BJP has raised demands for his resignation from the chief minister’s post.