In the latest development in the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in an excise policy case, the Enforcement Directorate has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court challenging the AAP leader's plea against the arrest. The ED has said that he did not cooperate despite multiple summons issued to him by the agency. Despite being summoned nine times, ED has argued, Kejriwal was avoiding interrogation by remaining absent before the investigating officer.
Apart from the material in possession of the investigating officer, to form a satisfaction that he is guilty of the offense of money laundering, his conduct has contributed to and aided the investigating officer in initiating his arrest tells ED states in its affidavit.
Further, defending Kejriwal’s arrest, ED said that Kejriwal has been arrested bona fide and not for any mala fide or extraneous reasons. “The arrest of a person, however high he may be, for the commission of offense based on material, can never violate the concept of free and fair elections….Treating a politician differently from an ordinary criminal in a matter of arrest would amount to arbitrary and irrational exercise of the power of arrest which would violate the principle of equality enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution,” the affidavit stated.
Delhi CM plea challenging provisions of PMLA
On April 23, the court extended the custody of Kejriwal and Bharat Rashtriya Samiti (BRS) leader K Kavitha by 14 days in the Excise policy case. Notably, Kejriwal has filed a plea challenging his arrest and the constitutional validity of certain provisions of PMLA. It alleged that the arbitrary procedure under PMLA is being used to create a non-level playing field for the general elections to "skew the electoral process in the favour of the ruling party at the Centre". Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in connection with money laundering charges linked to the Delhi government’s now-scrapped Excise policy. Later he was lodged in Tihar jail on April 1
(With ANI Inputs)
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