SC Questions Timing of Arvind Kejriwal's Arrest, Seeks Reply from ED

Noting that “life and liberty are exceedingly important, you can’t deny that,” a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta asked Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, appearing for the ED, to reply on the next date of hearing on May 3.

The bench, which posed several questions to Raju, was hearing Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest in the money laundering case related to the excise policy “scam”.

The top court also asked the ED to respond and explain the time gap between initiation of proceedings and action of arrest. The ED will also have to respond on whether criminal proceedings can be initiated without any adjudicatory proceedings.

“Without there being adjudicatory proceedings, can you have criminal proceedings initiated? There are no proceedings of attachment in this case so far, and if there are, then show how Kejriwal is involved,” the bench asked.

The top court said, “Threshold under Section 19 of PMLA, which casts onus on prosecution and not on accused, is fairly high, whereas under Section 45, onus shifts on accused. So how do we interpret it? Do we make the threshold much higher and ensure that the standard is the same?”

“As far as Manish Sisodia’s case is concerned, there are findings in favour and against... tell us where does the Kejriwal case lie then?” the bench asked.

Kejriwal is currently in judicial custody in Delhi’s Tihar jail after his arrest on March 21 in the case.