New Delhi : The Delhi High Court refused to give relief to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday, cancelling the bail granted to him by the trial court in the excise policy case. While giving the verdict, the vacation bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain said that the trial court did not consider the evidence of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) while granting bail.
Earlier, the High Court had reserved the decision on June 21. The ED had filed written arguments on this matter in the High Court and sought a stay on the bail granted to Kejriwal. In its arguments, the ED has said that the entire order of the trial court is wrong. According to ED, the trial court did not consider the arguments and evidence presented by it and the bail decision was not made according to the law.
The ED has said that the trial court did not pay attention to the evidence collected against Arvind Kejriwal after 2023 and unilaterally made the decision. The agency has said that the bail was granted to Kejriwal ignoring the statements of the workers and leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party Goa unit.
The ED has said that during the hearing in the trial court, it was not given sufficient opportunity to oppose the bail and a condition of section 45 of the Money Laundering Act was violated. Also, on Tuesday, the Supreme Court deferred the hearing on the petition filed by Kejriwal against the High Court's order of interim stay on the bail order. During the hearing, the Supreme Court expressed surprise that the High Court reserved the decision on the ED's plea for a stay on bail, whereas an order was passed simultaneously on the same plea.
Following the cancellation of the trial court's order, Kejriwal will have to remain in jail for now. The Delhi High Court has stayed the bail order granted to Kejriwal by the trial court in the Delhi Excise Scam case. The HC also commented that the trial court did not take the earlier orders of the Supreme Court into account. It said that the interim bail granted to Kejriwal by the Supreme Court was for election campaigning.
On 20th June, the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi granted regular bail to Arvind Kejriwal. When the bail order was being pronounced, lawyer Zoheb Hussain appearing on behalf of ED had asked the court to give him 48 hours to fill the bail bond so that he could challenge this order in the Delhi High Court. Earlier on 21 March, when Kejriwal did not get any interim relief from the High Court, the ED arrested Kejriwal in the evening.
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