New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, whose 14-day-judicial custody is coming to a close, is all set to be produced before the Rouse Avenue court on Monday in connection with the liquor policy-linked money laundering case. The Supreme Court is also expected to hear his plea challenging the high court order upholding his arrest by the ED in the liquor policy case.
An AAP insider claimed that it was unlikely that the national convenor will get any relief from either court. Even if there is a slight hope on the ED’s part, the CBI will jump in. “After BRS MLC K. Kavitha’s arrest, we have a strong feeling that Mr Kejriwal will be next in line," party sources said, adding: “We are exploring every possible legal option available as we need him at this time because of the impending Lok Sabha polls.”
The Delhi CM's case will be heard in the first half of the day in the court of special judge Kaveri Baweja. Further, as per the apex court's cause list, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta will hear his petition challenging the Delhi high court’s April 9 order.
Earlier on April 1, he was sent to Tihar Jail after a Delhi court passed the orders for his judicial custody till April 15. Orders for his judicial custody came after the ED submitted in the court that the AAP chief had not been cooperative in the interrogation. The agency claimed that Mr Kejriwal is highly influential and there is every likelihood of the arrestee influencing witnesses and tampering with evidence if released, and it may hamper the ongoing investigation.
In a massive blow to the chief minister, the high court had on April 9 upheld his arrest, saying that ED was left with “little option” after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation.
The high court had cited the ED’s claim that Mr Kejriwal conspired and was actively involved in the use and concealment of the proceeds of crime to reject his petition against his arrest. It chastised the AAP leader, alleged to have been involved in money laundering in his “personal capacity” and in his capacity as the national convenor of a political party, for questioning the timing of his arrest and underlined that an investigation against the “classes and masses” cannot be different.
The high court further rebuked CM for "casting aspersions" on the judicial process with his claim about an approver making donations to the ruling BJP at the Centre through electoral bonds, saying the law relating to approvers was more than 100 years old and it was not enacted to implicate him.
