Arvind Kejriwal to remain in jail, High Court stays bail order till decision on ED plea

New Delhi, June 21

A day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was granted bail by Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court, the High Court on Friday temporarily stayed the bail in a money laundering case linked to the liquor policy.

No money trail, says lower court

• SV Raju, ASG, said ED wasn’t given full opportunity to present case & trial judge dismissed reply as “bulky” sans proper consideration
• The trial court, while giving bail to Kejriwal, had said no money trail was established against him & he had no role in any activity related to the “proceeds of the crime”

A Vacation Bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain and Justice Ravinder Dudeja reserved the order on the stay application filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The HC stayed the operation of the bail order until the final decision is made.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju argued that the bail order was “perverse” and claimed that the ED was not given full opportunity to present its case. He emphasised that the trial judge dismissed their reply as “bulky” without proper consideration, arguing that Kejriwal was involved in demanding a bribe of Rs 100 crore and that the trial court failed to acknowledge this evidence properly.

The ASG said while giving liberty to Kejriwal to file a bail application before the trial court, the Supreme Court had not stated that the trial court should consider it ignoring the findings of the High Court.

The bail order had stated that the ED had failed to provide direct evidence against Kejriwal. “This is a wrong statement… You can decide against me but don’t say wrong things about me in the order. This reply was on record. The judge says bulky, I’ll not go through it. Then says the ED failed to point out. What kind of order is this? I am shocked,” Raju said.

“We have shown all this to point out that he had a role in the demand of Rs 100 crore. Yet the judge says no direct evidence. Direct evidence is in the form of a statement. There is corroboration also.”

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Kejriwal, said the accused could not be indefinitely detained while the investigation continued. He argued that the Supreme Court had allowed Kejriwal to seek bail from the trial court. He said the trial court’s decision was discretionary, made after considering all relevant aspects.

He said Kejriwal had surrendered voluntarily after his interim bail expired, arguing there was no flight risk.

Yesterday, the court, while granting bail to Kejriwal, had observed that no money trail had been established against him and he had no involvement in any activity related to the “proceeds of the crime”.

Vacation judge Niyay Bindu had also rejected the Enforcement Directorate’s plea to stay the order. However, the probe agency moved to the High Court. Meanwhile, Kejriwal’s wife Sunita alleged on Friday that the ED was treating Arvind Kejriwal as the “most wanted terrorist in India”. “It is as if Arvind Kejriwal is the most-wanted terrorist in India. Dictatorship in the country is crossing such limits that the ED violates someone’s personal liberty and even immediately goes to the high court to get a stay against the bail of an elected CM. We hope the high court will do justice,” she said.

RS MP Sanjay Singh accused PM Modi of making a mockery of the justice system after the HC stayed the order of trial court granting bail to Kejriwal. He alleged the trial court’s bail to the Delhi CM “exposed” the conspiracy of the BJP and the party should apologise to the AAP and Kejriwal.