Perverse: High Court stays trial court’s bail to Arvind Kejriwal

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, June 25

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday stayed the bail granted to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by a city court in a money laundering case linked to the excise policy scam, terming it “perverse”.

AAP to move SC

AAP said it would challenge the Delhi High Court decision to stay the bail granted to Kejriwal in the Supreme Court.

“A perusal of the impugned order reflects that the Vacation Judge has passed it without going through and appreciating the entire material brought on record by the rival parties…,” Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain said in his 34-page order.

“The ED submitted a written note in the special court/Vacation Judge concerned in support of the argument wherein the petitioner has raised various points as detailed therein for consideration but the Vacation Judge has not considered the said points/issues,” Justice Jain noted. Justice Jain ordered that the matter be listed before the Roster Bench on July 10.

Arrested on March 21 by the ED, the AAP national convener was released on 21-day interim bail till June 1 by the top court on May 10 to enable him to campaign in the Lok Sabha poll. He surrendered on June 2.

Delhi Vacation Judge Niyay Bindu had on June 20 ordered Kejriwal’s release, saying that the ED failed to give any direct evidence linking him to the proceeds of the crime and that the probe agency failed to show that co-accused Vijay Nair was acting on his behalf. She had also said the ED was acting with bias against the Delhi CM.

However, Justice Jain faulted Judge Bindu for “failing to apply her mind” to the material submitted by the ED and not giving adequate opportunity to the probe agency to argue its case.

Staying her order, the high court said, “The Vacation Judge, while passing the impugned order, did not appropriately appreciate the material/documents submitted on record and pleas taken by the ED, and the averments/grounds as raised in the petition under Section 439(2) of the (Criminal Procedure) Code require serious consideration while dealing with the said petition.”

The high court also faulted the trial court for saying that there was mala fides on the ED’s part as another Bench of the high court (Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma) had on April 9 rejected Kejriwal’s allegations of bias against the probe agency and the said order has not been stayed by the Supreme Court.