ED opposes Delhi CM’s plea seeking more meetings with his lawyers

ED opposes Kejriwal's plea for extra legal meetings, citing misuse of current meetings. Supreme Court granted interim bail, but maintainability questioned.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday opposed Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea seeking additional meetings with his lawyers for strategising the way forward in various litigations pending against him before the Delhi high court, saying that no special circumstances exist that entitle the Aam Aam Party (AAP) chief extra meetings.

To be sure, the Supreme Court on July 12 had granted interim bail to the AAP chief in the case registered by ED in connection with the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy. (Representational image)

As a bench of justice Neena Bansal Krishna said that she would pass orders in her chamber, the probe agency represented by special prosecutor Zoheb Hossain said that Kejriwal’s petition was infructuous in terms of the subsequent events.

“This has been preferred in the ED matter and at a time when he was in judicial custody in the ECIR. As of date, the Supreme Court has granted him interim bail and thus the maintainability needs to be considered,” Hossain argued.

To be sure, the Supreme Court on July 12 had granted interim bail to the AAP chief in the case registered by ED in connection with the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.

Hossain further asserted that it had already come on record that Kejriwal had misused the meetings with his legal representatives to sending messages to Delhi government ministers for administrative purposes.

Kejriwal had approached the high court against city court’s July 1 order of rejecting his plea seeking two additional meetings with his lawyers through video conferencing. Currently, the AAP chief is allowed two meetings with his lawyer in a week.

In the said order, the court had opined that Kejriwal’s legal team had failed to convince as to how the CM was entitled to additional meetings on the grounds which the court had rejected earlier. To be sure, the city court had on April 10 dismissed Kejriwal’s plea seeking five additional meetings with his lawyers.

In his plea before the high court, the CM asserted that multiple cases were pending against him in different states and additional meetings were thus required to enable him to discuss and strategise way forward in various litigations pending against him. The petition underscored that a proper legal representation qua 35-40 cases pending against him is his fundamental right.

In its reply filed on July 14, the Tihar Jail superintendent had opposed Kejriwal’s petition saying that the CM cannot be granted special treatment. The superintendent stated that though the prison is currently housing approximately 20,000 inmates out of which many are facing trials in cases even more than Kejriwal, the Delhi Prison Rules, 2018 is equal for all.

Rule 585 of Delhi Prison Rules, 2018, allows every inmate to have two physical mulakat or e-Mulakat with their family members in a week and two physical mulakat or e-legal mulakat with their advocates in a week.

Representing Tihar Jail, advocate Abhijit Sankar on Thursday asserted that the circumstances shown by Kejriwal did not warrant him the relief of additional meetings.

Countering the submissions, the chief minister, represented by senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, asserted that his client’s plea was not infructuous since he was still in judicial custody in the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The lawyer further stated that his client had allegedly sent the messages through his counsel in police custody and not judicial custody.

Kejriwal has been in custody since March 21 following his arrest by ED, apart from a 21-day interim bail in May granted by the top court for Lok Sabha election campaigning. On Friday, the Supreme Court had granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the ED case, acknowledging that he has spent over 90 days in incarceration, However, he continues to remain in custody due to his arrest in a separate case being investigated by CBI related to the same matter.

The case against the CM stems from allegations of irregularities in Delhi’s now-scrapped excise policy of 2021-22, which CBI began probing following a recommendation by Delhi’s lieutenant governor in July 2022.

Kejriwal was the third AAP leader arrested in this connection. Former deputy CM Manish Sisodia has been in jail since February 2023, and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh was granted bail by the top court in April this year after six months of custody.

On June 26, he was arrested by the CBI in the Rouse Avenue Court after a sequence of dramatic developments in court.

In the remand note, the agency alleged that Kejriwal is “one of the main conspirators of the criminal conspiracy” and said that Vijay Nair, a former party functionary, was contacting various liquor manufacturers and traders and demanding undue gratification since March 2021.