The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict on a plea filed by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate for his alleged involvement in the Delhi excise case.
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta gave Kejriwal the liberty to apply for a regular bail before a lower court. Reserving its judgment, the bench said “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 perused the written records of the case and directed ED to submit a chart to demonstrate the evidence gathered by it after the arrest of former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia to justify its decision to arrest Kejriwal.
During the hearing, ED counsel informed SC that it “discovered” chats between Kejriwal and “hawala operators” regarding the alleged proceeds of crime in the case.
ED claimed that the chats were recovered from the devices of hawala operators after Kejriwal refused to share his devices’ passwords.
The claim was strongly objected to by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, counsel for Kejriwal, who alleged that ED had suppressed this information and was making the claim only to prejudice the case against Kejriwal.
To this solicitor general Tushar Mehta responded that the hawala operators have been arrested recently and the alleged incriminating chats were retrieved from their devices. ED argued that the court at this stage cannot look at the credibility of the evidence gathered.
Before reserving the verdict, the bench deliberated upon the difference between the “grounds of arrest and reasons to believe” relied upon by ED before making an arrest.
Singhvi claimed that there was no material in the “ground of arrest” given to Kejriwal about the use of funds in Goa elections. ED has alleged that out of ₹100 crore alleged kickbacks, at least ₹45 crore were utilised by Aam Aadmi Party for its campaign in 2022 Goa assembly elections.
At the last hearing, the Supreme Court had said that it had carved no exception by granting interim bail to Kejriwal.
Kejriwal, who has been directed by SC to surrender before Tihar jail authorities on June 2, will now apply for regular bail before a lower court.
