New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has approached the Supreme Court, challenging the Delhi High Court’s pause on his bail in a corruption case related to the liquor policy case till a petition by the Enforcement Directorate is heard.
The Central agency had challenged the bail granted to Mr Kejriwal hours before he was to leave Tihar jail. On Friday, the high court said till it heard the agency’s petition, the trial court order for bail will not take effect.
Mr Kejriwal’s lawyers have sought a hearing tomorrow.
Mr Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on charges of money laundering. The agency has alleged that the Chief Minister got money from the liquor lobby for framing the excise policy and it was used to fund his Aam Aadmi Party’s election campaign in Goa.
He has been in jail since March 21 except for a brief interim bail granted by the Supreme Court ahead of the general election.
In its latest petition, the ED argued that the trial court’s order granting bail to Mr Kejriwal was “perverse” and had serious procedural irregularities. The court’s order was flawed, it said, since it was based on wrong information.
“On wrong facts, wrong dates, you come to a conclusion that mala fide,” Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, representing the ED, had said.
The High Court had sought Mr Kejriwal’s response on the matter.
Mr Kejriwal’s wife, Sunita Kejriwal said his bail order was challenged even before it was uploaded on the court’s website. “Even before the bail order was uploaded, the ED went to the high court to get it stayed. Dictatorship has crossed all limits in the country,” she said.
