Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal faced a massive setback on Tuesday as the High Court dismissed his petition challenging his arrest in a money laundering case linked to an alleged excise scam. The court ruled that there was no violation of legal provisions in his arrest. Besides his arrest, Kejriwal had also challenged his subsequent remand in the Enforcement Directorate's custody, which the court said was not illegal. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma noted that the Enforcement Directorate possessed sufficient evidence leading to Kejriwal's arrest, and the trial court's decision to remand him to the agency's custody was supported by well-reasoned grounds.
Here are Delhi High Court's observations:
- The arrest of Arvind Kejriwal was not in contravention of legal provisions. The remand can't be held to be illegal.
- The law applies equally to all and courts are concerned with constitutional morality and not political morality.
- The political considerations and equations cannot be brought before a court of law as they are not relevant for legal proceedings.
- The matter before this court is not a conflict between the central government and petitioner Kejriwal. Instead, it is a case between Kejriwal and the Directorate of Enforcement.
- The ED was in possession of enough material, which led it to arrest Kejriwal. The material collected by the probe agency reveals that the Delhi Chief Minister conspired and was actively involved in the use and concealment of proceeds of crime.
- The ED case also reveals that he was involved in his personal capacity as well as the convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party.
- The Delhi Chief Minister's arrest and remand have to be examined as per law and not as per the timing of elections. Kejriwal's challenge to the timing of arrest before General elections in the absence of any mala fide on the part of ED is not sustainable.
- In matters of investigation and interrogation, no individual, regardless of their position, such as being the Chief Minister, can be granted special exemption.
- The statements of approvers against the AAP national convenor would be judged during the trial as it cannot hold a mini-trial at this stage. Kejriwal would be free to cross-examine the approvers at the stage of trial.
What did the AAP claim?
The Aam Aadmi Party has vehemently denied Kejriwal's involvement in the alleged money laundering case linked to the Delhi excise policy scam. The party has always maintained that the Delhi Chief Minister's arrest is based on a political vendetta ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. "Whatever has happened till now in the so-called Excise Policy case- it can be said that the entire case is not about money laundering but it is the country's biggest political conspiracy," AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed.
In addition, the AAP has also claimed that the ED did not find any evidence of corruption against Kejriwal, however, the Delhi High Court quashed this claim, saying the probe agency has enough evidence with it. The agency also claimed that Kejriwal was directly involved in the formation of the excise policy.
The Aam Aadmi Party had also requested for Kejriwal's hearing via video conferencing, however, this was also denied by the Delhi High Court, saying in matters of investigation and interrogation, no individual, regardless of their position, such as being the Chief Minister, can be granted special exemption.
The matter pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi government's now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22. Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21, hours after the high court refused to grant him protection from coercive action by the federal anti-money laundering agency.
