Probe agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) told a Delhi court hearing the bail plea of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a money laundering case related to the alleged now-scrapped excise scam that everything in the matter had boiled down to his role.
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju said, “The matter boils down to his role.” He clarified that allegations of Kejriwal demanding Rs 100 crore bribe were brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and not the ED.
During the hearing, Kejriwal’s lawyer said, “Various chargesheets have been filed and in none of them, he was made and accused. Despite several people having been arrested in the earlier stages, nothing was about him.”
Earlier, Additional Sessions Judge Mukesh Kumar had adjourned the matter after the probe agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought time to file a reply in the matter.
The judge, meanwhile, fixed for Saturday, an application filed by Kejriwal seeking directions to allow his wife to join through video conference the proceedings of the medical board constituted to determine Kejriwal’s health condition and treatment. The judge directed the jail authorities concerned to file a reply in matter. During the proceedings, the ED requested the court to adjourned the matter till June 25.
The judge, however, said he would consider the accused’s convenience for the next date of hearing, not the probe agency’s.
“The accused is in judicial custody (JC), and not in your (ED’s) custody. If he wants some convenience, you do not have any role in that. You have no role to play. He is in JC. I will consider his convenience, not yours,” the judge said.
A Delhi court had on June 5 dismissed Kejriwal’s application seeking interim bail on medical grounds in the case.
The judge, however, had directed the Tihar jail authorities to take care of Kejriwal’s medical needs in judicial custody.
The judge had also extended the judicial custody of Kejriwal till June 19. Last Saturday, the Delhi High Court directed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal to take down a video recording of court proceedings related to the excise policy case from social media platforms.
Here are highlights of the top arguments made by both parties.
- ASG Raju said, “Further investigation by CBI has revealed his role in the predicate offence. He has not argued that he is not guilty. He has always argued that this statement was not credible.”
- “As far as timing is concerned, my friend has not told the court that we have subsequently collected more material. They say after July there is nothing, which is categorically wrong,” he said.
- “There was an order only to let him campaign, he was not allowed to go to the CM office or secretariat. It’s not an unconditional order. Had the SC felt that he is not guilty, these conditions would not be imposed,” he said.
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