Arvind Kejriwal bail: Enforcement Directorate likely to move Delhi High Court

PTC News Desk: In the excise policy case, the city’s Rouse Avenue court granted Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal regular bail. The Enforcement Directorate is expected to file a motion against this decision in the Delhi High Court today.

The Aam Aadmi Party chairman has been in judicial detention since March. On Thursday, vacation judge Nyay Bindu granted him bail on a surety of Rs 1,00,000. ED is expected to file a plea against the ruling at the higher court on Friday morning after the Rouse Avenue court denied its request to reschedule the filing of the bail bond for a 48-hour period, according to ANI.

On March 21, the agency detained Arvind Kejriwal in relation to a money laundering investigation concerning the now-cancelled liquor legislation.

In light of the Lok Sabha elections, Kejriwal was granted a 21-day interim release by the Supreme Court on May 10. On June 2, the AAP chief turned himself in to the Tihar Jail authorities.

Also Read: Delhi Excise Policy case: Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal, granted bail in liquor policy case

The Delhi High Court was initially contacted by Arvind Kejriwal to contest his apprehension. The chief minister of Delhi has been ignoring repeated summonses, the court said, so the agency had no choice but to uphold its action. After his appeal to prolong his temporary bail was denied by the Supreme Court’s administration, he applied for regular bail last month.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju opposed the bail motion, claiming that AAP officials’ payments for creating a policy that favored particular economic interests had been channeled into the party’s Goa election campaign through Hawala methods. Kejriwal, he claimed, had communication with Hawala traders.

He said that the AAP’s Goa election campaign was being managed by Chanpreet Singh Rayat, who received the bribe money from a man named Vinod Chauhan.

Additionally, he asserted that in November 2021, Arvind Kejriwal had stayed at the Grand Hyatt in Goa. Singh paid the bill with money from his bank account. According to the FBI, Chanpreet was the one who obtained Rs 45 crore from Hawala operators.

The agency has not provided any proof that the AAP had ever received ₹45 crore, Kejriwal’s attorney said the court.

He contended that Chanpreet made no mention anywhere of having paid for the AAP election or of having received proceeds from the alleged crime. The attorney requested that the court refrain from treating Arvind Kejriwal as “someone special” when deciding whether to grant bail.

Following Arvind Kejriwal’s release on bail, a verbal spat broke out between the ruling BJP and the opposition’s INDIA group. Renowned legal practitioner and Rajya Sabha member Kapil Sibal stated that Kejriwal’s release was long overdue.

As far as the prosecution was concerned, there was no reason to put him behind bars now that the elections were finished. He posted on X, “The mechanism for delivering justice has been unfair.

Head of the Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav declared that the bail was a triumph for truth.

“Another triumph of truth is the release of renowned Delhi chief minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal ji. The strength and cohesion of the ‘India Alliance’ will free the Indian people from the oppressive governance of the BJP. India will establish a coalition government very soon,” he declared.

Sanjeev Nasiar, the state president of AAP Legal Cell, claimed that the ED was operating under “someone’s pressure.”

“The truth has prevailed. This was a BJP conspiracy, not a true case. For the AAP, the nation, and all of us, this is a tremendous victory. ED is operating under duress and lacks any evidence against any of our leaders. They attempted, but were unable, to put an end to Arvind Kejriwal’s political career,” he stated.

Regular bail in a PMLA case, according to AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar, is equivalent to an acquittal.

“This case is wholly fraudulent; the BJP office wrote the entire document.” We are really appreciative of the court’s historic decision, Kakkar stated.

In the meantime, the BJP claimed that the people’s opinion on the accusations was reflected in the AAP-Congress alliance’s defeat in Delhi during the recently held Lok Sabha elections.

“The chief minister of Delhi was given bail as a part of the legal procedure. Virendra Sachdeva, the chief of the Delhi BJP, stated in a statement that “the people, who have already expressed their view by defeating the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress alliance, will ultimately decide on any politician in a democracy.”

The BJP won all seven of Delhi’s Lok Sabha seats.

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