In Delhi High Court, ED says it’s not keen on cancellation of Arvind Kejriwal’s bail but trial court order is perverse
Additional Solicitor-General S V Raju informs Justice Ravinder Dudeja of the Enforcement Directorate’s stance while seeking an adjournment for the ninth time in the Delhi excise policy case.
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Arvind Kejriwal
(Express Archives)The Enforcement Directorate said in the Delhi High Court on Monday that it was not at the current stage insisting on the cancellation of bail the trial court in the excise policy case had granted to former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, even though the order was “perverse, erroneous and thus needs to be set aside”.
Additional Solicitor-General S V Raju informed Justice Ravinder Dudeja of the ED’s stance while seeking an adjournment for the ninth time in the case.
In a plea moved last year, the ED sought the bail granted to the AAP chief by the trial court on June 20, 2024. The high court stayed the bail order five days later. The Supreme Court subsequently granted Kejriwal interim bail on July 12, 2024.
The Delhi government’s 2021 excise policy was scrapped in 2022 after the lieutenant governor ordered a CBI inquiry into alleged irregularities and corruption involving its formulation and execution. The ED arrested Kejriwal on March 21, 2024. According to the CBI and the ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours were extended to the licence holders.
Senior advocate Vikram Chaudhari, meanwhile, pressed that the trial court’s bail order was correct and that there was nothing left in the ED’s petition seeking the cancellation of bail. ASG Raju, however, contended that a larger bench of the Supreme Court might cancel Kejriwal’s interim bail and therefore requested Justice Dudeja to keep the ED’s petition pending.
The high court will now consider the matter next on July 30.
Meanwhile, two petitions—filed by Kejriwal and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, respectively—seeking the quashing of a trial court order that took cognisance of an ED chargesheet without prior sanction to prosecute them, have been kept for consideration on August 12.
Kejriwal is seeking the quashing of the trial court’s order from July 9, 2024, where it had taken cognisance of the ED’s seventh supplementary chargesheet. Relying on a 2024 Supreme Court verdict, he has contended that summoning of an accused “without any fresh/additional evidence in the supplementary chargesheet… is nothing but a review of the original order of summoning and as such abuse of the process of court”.
Similarly, Sisodia is seeking that the high court set aside the order as the trial court took cognisance of the ED chargesheet without sanction to prosecute him while was a public servant.
In January this year, however, the ED received the Centre’s sanction to prosecute the AAP leaders.
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