Delhi excise case: HC issues notice to Kejriwal in ED plea

The Delhi High Court heard the ED's plea against a city court's order to provide un-relied documents to accused in the excise policy case, setting a January 30 hearing.

The Delhi high court on Wednesday issued notice in an Enforcement Directorate (ED) plea challenging a city court’s order directing it to supply copies of the remaining un-relied documents and digital devices — those not used by prosecution to support its case — to the accused in the Delhi excise policy case, in a digitised form or a soft copy.

A bench of justice Manoj Kumar Ohri sought a response from all the accused in the case. (HT Archive)

A bench of justice Manoj Kumar Ohri sought a response from all the accused in the case including former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh, and fixed January 30 as the next date of hearing.

ED was appealing against the city court’s October 9 order directing it to supply the documents in view of larger interest of justice, saying that there can be no doubt that the accused have a right to examine the un-relied documents/digital devices collected during the course of investigation and the accused cannot be denied access to the documents.

In its petition before the high court, ED had said that pursuant to the completion of investigation it had sought approval of the competent authority and begun the process of returning the digital device forming a part of the list of un-relied documents. It said that denial of inspection of un-relied documents at this stage would not cause any prejudice to the accused as the probe agency has already supplied all relied documents to them. “The respondents will not suffer any prejudice due to denial of inspection of un-relied upon documents at this stage. The prosecution has already supplied all relied upon documents as per Section 207 of the CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure), and any additional documents that are relevant will be provided at the appropriate stage if required. The respondents retain the right to challenge the evidence during the trial proceedings, ensuring their right to a fair trial is fully preserved,” the plea said.

During the hearing on Wednesday, ED’s special counsel Zoheb Hossain submitted that the city court had given the agency a direction at the stage of scrutiny of documents to supply un-relied upon documents to the accused, but the Supreme Court had only directed the agency to supply a list of un-relied upon documents but not the documents.