The Supreme Court on Monday sought Enforcement Directorate’s (ED’s) response on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea challenging his March 21 arrest and subsequent custody in a money laundering case linked to the alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now scrapped Delhi excise policy.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta issued notice to the ED seeking its response on Kejriwal’s plea by April 24 and posted the matter for next hearing on April 29.
The development comes as a setback to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener who was expecting relief from the top court ahead of Lok Sabha elections.
On April 9, the Delhi High Court had dismissed his plea against arrest and subsequent ED custody in the case. The high court upheld his arrest, saying the probe agency’s action was justified after he skipped repeated summons.
Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party has accused the ED of working on directions from the ruling BJP, calling his arrest under stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act “biggest political conspiracy”, to stop him from campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections.
However, the probe agency denied the allegations and claimed that Kejriwal was involved in the alleged liquor policy scam in a dual role.
The AAP chief was arrested on March 21, hours after the Delhi high court refused to grant him interim protection from any coercive action by the ED.