Supreme Court verdict on legality of Kejriwal’s arrest in excise policy case today

The court had reserved its verdict in the matter on May 17.

For Kejriwal, Senior Advocate A M Singhvi had sought to question the investigation. He argued that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had ignored nine exculpatory statements of witnesses but given weight to one that sought to indict Kejriwal.

He also questioned the truthfulness of the witness statements, pointing out that P Sarath Reddy, who deposed against Kejriwal, had made donations to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) via electoral bonds.

While the ED has claimed that the money raised from the alleged scam was used for the Goa Assembly elections, Singhvi contended that “there is no iota of material in grounds of arrest” regarding the alleged receipt of money by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) through the hawala route.

Appearing for the ED, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju had denied the claims, stating that according to law, the defence of the accused cannot be looked at even at the stage of framing of charges.

Concluding its arguments, the ED, which arrested Kejriwal on March 21, also claimed it had found “personal, direct chats” between Kejriwal and a hawala operator.

During the pendency of the matter, the SC granted interim bail to Kejriwal to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. He surrendered on the expiry of the interim bail period on June 2.

Reserving its verdict, the SC also asked ED to share the case files, saying it wants to have a look at the witness statements recorded by the probe agency after it denied bail to former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia before Kejriwal’s arrest.

On May 17, the ED filed its chargesheet in the alleged excise policy scam, naming Kejriwal and the AAP as accused.

The agency alleged that Kejriwal was the “kingpin” and “key conspirator” in hatching the now-scrapped excise policy in collusion with other AAP leaders who demanded kickbacks from liquor businessmen in exchange for giving them favours.

The ED earlier alleged that the now-scrapped excise policy was drafted “considering the favours to be granted to the “South Group’”.

As per the agency, the South Group “secured uninhibited access, undue favours, attained stakes in established wholesale businesses, and multiple retail zones (over and above what was allowed in the policy)”, and paid Rs 100 crore to AAP leaders in return.

The ED also arrested AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha in the case. Singh was later granted bail by the SC.