The Supreme Court on Monday heard a plea by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, challenging his arrest in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise policy scam. The top court will continue hearing the plea tomorrow. Kejriwal has asserted before the top court that his arrest, which he deems as "illegal," represents a significant attack on democratic principles such as "free and fair elections and federalism."
Responding to the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) reply affidavit on his petition contesting his arrest, Kejriwal highlighted the circumstances surrounding his arrest, particularly its timing just before the Lok Sabha elections when the Model Code of Conduct was in effect. He emphasized the perceived "arbitrariness" of the agency's actions.
Kejriwal accuses Centre of misusing ED
Kejriwal claimed it is a "classical case" of how the Centre has misused the ED and its wide powers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to "crush" the Aam Aadmi Party and its leaders. It claimed that the ED illegally 'picked up' a sitting chief minister and the national convenor of one of the national Opposition parties, five days after the general elections were announced and the Model Code of Conduct came into force.
He said a level playing field, which is a pre-requisite for 'free and fair elections', has clearly been compromised with his illegal arrest. It said the entire basis of Kejriwal's arrest rests upon certain statements which are in the nature of "self-incriminating confessions" by alleged accomplices who have been given immunity by way of pardon etc. "Whether such statements could qualify as materials to reach the conclusion of guilt as envisaged under section 19 PMLA to justify the arrest of a sitting chief minister of NCT of Delhi or a national convenor of a national political party in India in the midst of general elections," it asked.
What did Kejriwal say in his rejoinder?
In his rejoinder, Kejriwal alleged that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had a singular goal of obtaining a statement against him, and once achieved, the agency's investigative mission seemed fulfilled. He noted that after obtaining the statement, neither were the co-accused arrested nor were further statements taken. The AAP leader contended that the ED's investigative intent appeared malicious, citing deliberate concealment of statements made by co-accused individuals, where either no allegations were made or allegations were explicitly denied. Kejriwal further argued that the ED had failed to establish any connection to support its claim that an amount of Rs 45 crore was transferred by the South group as an advanced kickback, which was purportedly utilized by the AAP in the Goa elections.
AAP anticipates SC ruling in Kejriwal's favour
Earlier on Sunday, April 28, Delhi cabinet minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the Aam Aadmi Party is sure that the Supreme Court will allow Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to campaign in the Lok Sabha polls. "If CBI and ED got 1 lakh pages of documents and 80,000 of them are in favour of Arvind Kejriwal and AAP, then those 80,000 documents were not presented before the court, only those documents which were taken by pressurizing people, by putting them in jail, by luring people with bail, by luring people with pardon, by luring people with ticket to contest elections from NDA, only those testimonies were presented before the court by ED and CBI," Bharadwaj added.
(With inputs from PTI)
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