On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had hinted at granting interim bail to Kejriwal to allow him to marketing campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The Supreme Court stated on Wednesday that it may pass an order on May 10 on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s interim bail within the cash laundering case registered towards him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in reference to the Delhi excise coverage case. As a bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna was rising for the day, it advised Enforcement Directorate counsel Additional Solicitor General SV Raju that it may pass the order on interim reduction to Kejriwal on Friday.
On Tuesday, the bench had hinted at granting interim bail to Kejriwal to allow him to marketing campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. However, it had additionally stated that if interim bail is granted, Kejriwal wouldn’t be allowed to discharge any official duties as Chief Minister. ED had opposed this within the prime courtroom which was listening to arguments on interim bail to Kejriwal.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, additionally representing ED, on earlier listening to advised the bench that there cannot be any deviation solely as a result of Kejriwal is Chief Minister and requested if Supreme Court is carving out exception for politicians?
“How can a Chief Minister be treated differently from an aam aadmi. There can’t be any deviation only because he is a Chief Minister. Would campaigning for elections be more important?” he had advised the bench.
To this, the bench had stated that elections are held as soon as in 5 years. Solicitor General then stated, “We are dealing with the Chief Minister of capital and he has evaded summons for six months. Please do not make an exception as it would demoralise a real common man and it shows that if you are holding a position then you will get benefit.”
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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Kejriwal had challenged a Delhi High Court judgement which dismissed his plea towards arrest by the ED and his subsequent remand within the excise coverage case. Kejriwal, whereas submitting an enchantment within the apex courtroom had contended that his arrest after announcement of the General Elections is “motivated by extraneous considerations”.
On April 9, the High Court had dismissed his plea for launch from jail and rejected his argument of political vendetta amid the looming Lok Sabha elections. The High Court had stated that Kejriwal’s absence from 9 ED summons over six months undermined any claims of particular privilege as Chief Minister, suggesting his arrest was an inevitable consequence of his non-cooperation. Kejriwal was arrested by ED on March 21 in reference to a cash laundering probe relating to alleged irregularities within the now-cancelled Delhi excise coverage 2021-22.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA workers and is printed from ANI)
