Locals watch as a large banner of jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal hangs from the balcony of a building
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, arrested on March 21 in the liquor policy scam case, on Tuesday failed to get any relief as the Supreme Court posted his plea for consideration on Thursday or next week.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, however, noted, "He is the Chief Minister of Delhi. Elections are on going. This is an extraordinary situation. It is not like he is a habitual offender. We will consider on priority whether he should be released in the interim."
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, asked what example were we setting. "Are other people less important than CM," he asked.
The bench, however, said there was no harm in campaigning and he was not involved in any other case.
The court also said that the national elections are held once in five years, though politicians should not be treated separately. "Elections are around the corner and we are thinking on that perspective," the bench said.
The court told Kejriwal's counsel, "We want to make it clear. Even if we release you on interim bail, we don’t want you to perform any official duties as Chief Minister. It is your choice to continue as CM. It will lead to a conflict of interest if any decisions are taken regarding functioning of the government. We cannot allow that. If we are releasing you, it is only for the purpose of elections.”
The court also expressed its concern over delay in completion of investigation and called for production of files by the Enforcement Directorate.
"It's almost two years now. This is not good for any investigating agency. When will the trial start in the case," the bench asked Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the ED.
In the course of the hearing, ED claimed that Kejriwal stayed at 7-star Grand Hyatt hotel during the 2022 Goa Assembly election and its bill was paid by Chanpreet Singh, who allegedly accepted cash funds for AAP’s campaign.
He asserted that it was not a politically motivated case.
“We are not concerned with politics, we are concerned with evidence and we have it,” Raju said.
"At the nascent stage Arvind Kejriwal was not the focus and ED was not looking at that, but his role became clearer only when the investigation progressed," the ED said.
During the hearing, Mehta said that he had allegedly evaded ED summons for nine times and for a period of six months.
"Six precious months have been lost in the process," he said.The bench, however, said that even in heinous offences, the court granted bail. "This is an extraordinary case. He is not involved in any other case," the court said.
A day after his plea was rejected by the Delhi High Court on April 9, Kejriwal had on April 10 moved the Supreme Court against the dismissal of plea of his arrest and remand in Delhi liquor scam.
The ED also said that if there is enough of evidences against an accused person, whose political clout is huge, and the agency arrested him or her then one could not say that his arrest was illegal.
One also could not say that his or her participation in an electoral process would be adversely affected if arrests would be made against them. If these arguments could be taken into consideration, then no political leader would be arrested despite their involvement in cases.