E-Paper
‘Biggest political conspiracy’: AAP on excise case after HC blow to Kejriwal, will challenge decision in Supreme Court
Delhi High Court rejected Kejriwal's plea on Tuesday. The court said that ED was in possession of enough material which led them to arrest Delhi CM.
Delhi minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj on Tuesday said that the party will move the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi high court order that rejected Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea against his arrest.
Bharadwaj said, “We respect the institution of the high court but we respectfully submit that we do not agree with its order and will move the Supreme Court against it.”
Advocate Rishikesh Kumar, Kejriwal's counsel said to ANI, “We have challenged the illegal arrest of Arvind Kejriwal. The High Court in its finding has said that the remand order is legal and secondly, they said that they had the ground to arrest...We are waiting for the order to come. Once the detailed order is uploaded, we will challenge it before the Supreme Court as early as possible.”
The case is based on alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22, which has since been scrapped.
He added, “We will go to the Supreme Court, we have full faith in the Supreme Court that just like Sanjay Singh got relief from the Supreme Court. Arvind Kejriwal will also get relief from the Supreme Court.”
Delhi High Court rejected Kejriwal's plea on Tuesday. The court said that ED was in possession of enough material which led them to arrest Delhi CM. It added that the delays caused by Kejriwal also impacted those who were already in custody.
“The petitioner has been arrested in a money laundering case & the courts have to consider the same with regards to the law in the absence of timing of arrest. Kejriwal would have known when Lok Sabha elections would be declared and he would then have been very busy. It cannot be held that the arrest timing was decided by ED,” the HC said.
Read Here | ‘Kejriwal will have the right to…’: What Delhi high court said about approvers, electoral bonds
Delhi Minister Bharadwaj alleged that the whole excise policy case was not a money laundering case but instead was the biggest political conspiracy in India's history. He added that in this conspiracy CMs, political parties and governments, built by winning significant margins in states across India, were being targetted.
Bharadwaj said that while transactions of crores were being alleged, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have not been able to find a single penny which was illegal. “This raises questions on the investigation and these claims,” he added.
Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21, following the high court's denial of protection against coercive measures by the federal anti-money laundering agency. After his ED custody concluded, he was remanded to judicial custody on April 1 upon appearing in the trial court. Currently, he is detained in Tihar jail.
Responding to HC's verdict, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Virendraa Sachdeva said, “If the leaders of the Aam Aadmi party have some ethics left then they should apologise to the people of Delhi...If they (AAP) are questioning the court's decision now then it is an insult.”
