As per a city court's ruling last week, Arvind Kejriwal, who the Enforcement Directorate has nicknamed the "kingpin" of the scandal, will stay in Delhi's Tihar Jail till April 15.
Delhi, New: Tuesday afternoon, the Delhi High Court rejected the Chief Minister’s appeal of Arvind Kejriwal’s detention on March 21 in connection with the purported liquor policy fraud, ruling that the accused shall stay behind bars. The Aam Aadmi Party of Mr. Kejriwal reacted quickly, announcing within an hour that it will file an appeal with the Supreme Court.
The court took notice of materials provided by the Enforcement Directorate, which implied that the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party had colluded to create the now-cancelled policy and had demanded ₹ 100 crore in suspected bribes, part of which went toward financing campaign expenditures for the Goa election in 2022.
The court also took note of the declarations submitted by the ED on behalf of the accused approvers who are now government witnesses, as well as the AAP Goa candidate’s assertion that he was paid with the suspected kickbacks.
Thus, it was decided that Mr. Kejriwal’s arrest was lawful and his request was rejected. As a result, the court maintained the previous remand orders, which had him in the custody of the ED and Tihar Jail in Delhi till April 15. The first Chief Minister in office to be arrested is Mr. Kejriwal.
On Approver Statements, the Court
After reading the ruling, which was supposed to be delivered at 2:30 pm but was postponed until 3:15 pm, the court expressed disapproval of Mr. Kejriwal’s arguments from April 3, in which he questioned the comments made by approvers. The court stated that it “amounts to casting aspersions on the judicial process” to suspect the pardon of an accused person in return for information incriminating other accused parties. “The law is over 100 years old… it is not a one-year-old law falsely enacted to implicate the petitioner,” the judge severely stated.
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Court Regarding Mr. Kejriwal’s Arrest Time
Concerns over the timing of the arrest were also dismissed by the court. According to Mr. Kejriwal and the AAP, the arrest was scheduled right before the Lok Sabha election with the intention of upsetting campaign schedules and isolating the party’s most senior officials, including the Chief Minister.
“‘Level playing field’ is more than simply a catchphrase before an election. It is a component of “free and fair elections,” which are a component of a democracy. Timing problems are apparent in this situation, Mr. Singhvi added.
“What is the urgency here? I’m not discussing politics here. He went on, saying, “I am talking about law,” and said that the purpose of the arrest was to “demolish Aam Aadmi Party before first vote is cast.”
Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi made the following argument last week: “There would be nothing against me in the initial remarks. When some people are arrested, they first testify against me and are granted bail. After that, they are pardoned and given approval.”
The Supreme Court had granted bail to AAP MP Sanjay Singh, who had been detained in this matter, back then. The court observed that Mr. Singh was not immediately implicated by one of the approvers. However, the Delhi High Court stated that Mr. Kejriwal will be given the chance to view and ask questions about all of these papers, but only at “the appropriate stage”. It stated, “This is not that stage.”
