The Supreme Court will hear on Monday the pleas filed by two prominent Opposition leaders – Delhi chief minister and AAP boss Arvind Kejriwal and former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren – challenging their arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, days before the Lok Sabha elections 2024.
The bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta will hear both the petitions.
While Kejriwal was arrested in a money laundering case related to the alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22, Soren was arrested in an alleged land scam.
In his plea, Kejriwal has challenged the Delhi High Court’s April 9 judgment rejecting his writ petition challenging his arrest and subsequent ED custody.
The AAP chief is currently lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custody. He told the Supreme Court that the ED could not prove that money in the liquor policy case went to the AAP.
Last week, Soren also moved the top court challenging his arrest. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Hemant Soren, submitted before the court that the Jharkhand High Court had reserved the order on his plea in February but is yet to deliver the judgement.
Earlier on Saturday, the special PMLA Court in Ranchi refused to grant bail relief to Soren. The former Jharkhand CM had sought 13 days of bail to attend the funeral of his uncle.
Both Kejriwal and Soren have termed their arrest by the ED a BJP conspiracy to stop them from campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections.
