Today(on 15th July),The Delhi High Court has scheduled a hearing for August 7 on the Enforcement Directorate’s plea challenging Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s bail in a money laundering case linked to an alleged excise scam. The court previously stayed the trial court’s bail order, and Kejriwal’s counsel requested additional time to file a reply, citing the Supreme Court’s interim bail granted on Friday.
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NEW DELHI: Today(on 15th July), The Delhi High Court has scheduled for August 7 the hearing of the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) plea challenging the bail granted to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case related to the alleged excise scam.
Previously, the high court had stayed the trial court’s June 20 order, which had granted bail to Kejriwal.
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, who was set to hear the plea, was informed by Kejriwal’s counsel that the ED served them a copy of its rejoinder late on Sunday night, necessitating additional time to file a reply. The counsel mentioned-
“On Friday, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the case, and we will submit the order copy as evidence.”
He further urged the court to allow them 15 days to file the rejoinder.
Following this, the court listed the matter for further hearing on August 7.
On June 20, a trial court granted Kejriwal bail on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh. However, the ED quickly moved the high court, arguing that the trial court’s order was “perverse”, “one-sided”, and “wrong-sided” and that its findings were based on irrelevant facts.
In response to the ED’s petition, Kejriwal stated that he was a victim of a “witch-hunt” by the probe agency. He argued that canceling the bail granted by the trial court would amount to a “grave miscarriage of justice”. He emphasized that discretionary orders of bail cannot be overturned merely based on the “perceptions and fanciful imagination” of the prosecution.
On June 21, the high court imposed an interim stay on the trial court’s bail order until an order was passed on the ED’s application for interim relief. The court had issued a notice and asked Kejriwal to file a reply to the ED’s petition.
Later, on June 25, the high court issued a detailed order staying the trial court’s decision to grant bail to Kejriwal.
Kejriwal was arrested by the ED and the CBI on March 21 and June 26, respectively, in connection with money laundering and corruption cases stemming from the alleged excise scam.
The excise policy in question was scrapped in 2022 after the Delhi lieutenant governor ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities and corruption involved in its formulation and execution. According to both the CBI and the ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy, and undue favors were extended to license holders.
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