After hearing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea challenging his arrest by the central probe agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection to a money laundering case linked to the now scrapped Delhi Excise Policy, the Supreme Court on Friday granted Kejriwal an interim bail. However, despite thee judgement, Kejriwal will remain in jail as the CBI too had later arrested him in a related matter.
SC grants Kejriwal bail: What all did the apex court say?
Pronouncing the judgement, the top court mentioned it is up to Kejriwal to decide if he should continue as chief minister.
"We are conscious of the fact that Arvind Kejriwal is an elected leader," a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said while also noting that Kejriwal has suffered incarceration for over 90 days.
Referring the questions about the legality of his arrest in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case to a larger bench, the apex court said since the matter is concerned with the right to life and the issue of arrest has been referred to a larger bench, Kejriwal should be released on interim bail.
The questions related sent to the higher bench are on power, necessity of arrest under section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and the policy of arrest by the ED.
The court further added that Kejriwal would be released on interim bail in terms of the conditions in the order of May 10.
As per the May 10 interim bail conditions Kejriwal was prohibited from visiting his office or the Delhi Secretariat during the tenure of his interim bail. Furthermore, Kejriwal was also asked to not sign any official file unless absolutely necessary to obtain the Lieutenant Governor's sanction during the 21-day interim bail period.
Kejriwal in custody: Legal proceedings so far
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief has challenged in the top court the April 9 order of the Delhi High Court that had upheld his arrest in the case. The high court had upheld Kejriwal's arrest in the case, saying there was no illegality about it and that the ED was left with "little option" after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation.
On April 15, the court sought a response from the ED on Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest in the money laundering case.
On May 17, SC reserved its verdict on Kejriwal's plea challenging legality of his arrest by the ED on March 21 in the case.
On June 20, he was granted bail by a trial court here on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh in the case.
However, Delhi High Court on June 21 imposed an interim stay on the trial court's bail order till passing of an order on ED's application for interim relief.
On June 25, the high court had passed a detailed order staying the trial court order.
Kejriwal was also arrested by the CBI on June 26 in connection with the corruption case related to the alleged excise policy scam.
