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Arvind Kejriwal gets interim bail till June 1, will have to surrender next day
Arvind Kejriwal will have to surrender and go back to jail on June 2, the Supreme Court said.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim bail to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal till June 1 in a big relief. A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta passed the order after it heard both sides earlier. The interim bail has been granted in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha election -- though the Enforcement Directorate opposed it and said campaigning for the election was not a constitutional right. An interim bail till June 1 means Kejriwal will be out of jail when Delhi votes on May 25. On June 2, Kejriwal will have to surrender. He will be in jail on June 4, the counting and the result day.
Arvind Kejriwal interim bail: Follow LIVE updates
The detailed order mentioning the bail conditions will be uploaded by evening.
Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped excise policy. The interim bail means he would walk out of Tihar jail after over a month.
When will Kejriwal walk out of Tihar?
The formalities take some time and Kejriwal may not actually walk out of Tihar today but Kejriwal's lawyer Shadan Farasat said they will be trying for Kejriwal's release today itself. The interim bail order has no restriction o his election campaigning, Farasat said.
Why Kejriwal granted 21-day interim bail: What Supreme Court said to ED
The ED opposed the interim bail for electioneering and said there are no such precedents available that a politician was granted interim bail for his campaigning. The Supreme Court reasoned that granting 21-day interim bail to Kejriwal would not make much of a difference.
The Supreme Court bench on Tuesday hinted at granting interim bail to Kejriwal so that he can campaign for the elections. It said if interim bail were granted, Kejriwal would not be allowed to discharge any official duties as the chief minister. Kejriwal's counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi first opposed it but later agreed.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing ED, told the bench at an earlier hearing that there can't be any deviation only because Kejriwal is Chief Minister and asked if the Supreme Court is carving out exceptions for politicians.
"How can a Chief Minister be treated differently from an aam aadmi? There can't be any deviation only because he is a chief minister. Would campaigning for elections be more important?" he had argued. The top court said elections are held once in every five years.
