New Delhi:
The Supreme Court will examine the possibility of granting interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal so that he can campaign for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta today said they will consider the interim bail petition on Tuesday (May 7) and asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Mr Kejriwal's counsel to be prepared.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader was arrested by ED officials on March 21 in connection with alleged irregularities in Delhi's now scrapped liquor policy. He has approached the Supreme Court after failing to get relief from lower courts. He is the third top AAP leader to be arrested in the corruption case, after Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh. Mr Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP, is out on bail.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing on behalf of Kejriwal, today said there is no evidence against the Delhi Chief Minister and his arrest is legal. Mr Kejriwal, he said, had responded to nine calls from the ED. He added that failure to appear cannot be grounds for arrest.
“All the evidence on which I was arrested is from before 2023. All the material is the same as in July 2023. The same evidence was used in Manish Sisodia's case. The money trail was the same,” Mr Singhvi said.
When the court asked whether any action had been taken against AAP, Mr Singhvi replied in the negative. Referring to Section 70 of the PMLA, which deals with violations by companies, he said: “Anything or everything done by a political party cannot be attributed to its chairman or chairman. Mere mention of a company cannot lead to the arrest of the MD unless you prove something, same with AAP.” To this, Justice Khanna replied: “Any person who is in overall charge of the company, then you are vicariously liable to the company and then you have to prove that it was done without your knowledge.” Mr Singhvi replied: “They say he is the mastermind behind AAP… he is involved in the bribe demand. There is no direct evidence.”
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing on behalf of the central agency, said the decision to arrest Mr Kejriwal was not only taken by the investigating officer but was also reinforced by a special judge. “Before he was arrested, they moved a division bench of the Delhi High Court saying he should not be arrested, but the court looked at the documents and said there was no interference. So application of judicial spirit in three phases,” he said.
The court ultimately noted that this case and the investigation of its various aspects may take some time. “But if the matter takes time, we may consider interim bail due to the elections,” the bench said. The court asks what conditions can be imposed if bail is granted. “We still have to decide on that and we will hear that on Tuesday. We must be open so that neither party is taken by surprise,” the court said.