Delhi excise scam: Supreme Court questions ED on timing of Kejriwal’s arrest, seeks its reply

The bench asked the probe agency to reply on the next date of hearing of Kejriwal's plea challenging his arrest.

ByPTI

Published Apr 30, 2024 | 7:25 PMUpdatedApr 30, 2024 | 7:25 PM

Kejriwal fifth summons ed

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 30 April, questioned the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the timing of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest ahead of the general elections and sought a reply from the agency.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta asked Additional Solicitor General SV Raju to reply to the question of the timing and said, “Life and liberty are exceedingly important. You can’t deny that.”

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Directs to file a reply

The bench, which asked Raju several other questions, asked the probe agency to reply on the next date of hearing of Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest in the money laundering case related to the excise policy scam.

The matter is likely to be taken up for hearing on Friday — from Wednesday, both judges will be sitting in different combinations.

Kejriwal is currently lodged in the Tihar jail under judicial custody after his arrest on 21 March in the case.

The top court issued ED a notice on 15 April and sought its response to Kejriwal’s plea.

On 9 April, the high court upheld Kejriwal’s arrest, saying there was no illegality and the ED was left with “little option” after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation.

The matter pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government’s now scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.

(Disclaimer: The headline, subheads, and intro of this report along with the photos may have been reworked by South First. The rest of the content is from a syndicated feed, and has been edited for style.)