Arvind Kejriwal has challenged his arrest by the ED in the Supreme Court
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court today asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) about why Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested just before the start of the general elections.
Mr Kejriwal had challenged his arrest in the Delhi liquor policy case.
Explaining the reason why the question of the time of arrest arose, Justice Sanjeev Khanna told the ED to clarify whether the central agency can initiate criminal proceedings without any judicial proceedings being conducted in the case.
The bench, also comprising Justice Dipankar Datta, asked Additional Solicitor General SV Raju to respond to the question about the time of the arrest and said, “Life and liberty are extremely important. You cannot deny that.”
“No seizure has been done in this case so far and if there has been, show how Kejriwal is involved in the case,” Justice Khanna said. “Tell me: why this arrest before the general election?” he said.
The Supreme Court noted that in the case related to former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, investigators have claimed to have found material, but nothing has emerged in Mr Kejriwal's case.
The Supreme Court told the ED to explain why there has been such a huge gap between the start of the proceedings and the arrest. The court then ordered the ED to respond on Friday.
Mr Kejriwal, who has decided to continue as Chief Minister from jail, is being held under judicial custody in Delhi's Tihar after his arrest on March 21.
The Supreme Court had issued notice to ED on April 15 seeking response on Mr Kejriwal's challenge against his arrest.
On April 9, the Delhi High Court upheld Mr Kejriwal's arrest, saying there was no illegality and the ED had “little choice” after he skipped the summons and refused to cooperate in the investigation.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) election campaign is being led by party leaders Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj, along with other senior party colleagues. Mr Kejriwal's wife Sunita has also joined in reaching out to her husband's supporters.