Arvind Kejriwal withdraws plea in Supreme Court against his arrest by ED

After hours of speculation and an eventful mentioning episode before the Supreme Court on Friday morning, Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal chose to withdraw his plea before the top court against his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi excise policy case [Arvind Kejriwal vs Directorate of Enforcement]..Kejriwal's counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the top court that he will argue the case before the Magistrate regarding his remand when ED produces him before the Rouse Avenue court in Delhi."We are withdrawing the petition here as it is clashing with the remand. We will argue the remand and come back here . I will give a letter to the Registry (of Supreme Court regarding withdrawal)," Singhvi said.The Court allowed the request."In view of the statement made, the prayer has been accepted. The writ petition stands dismissed as withdrawn with liberty, as prayed," the Court noted in its order.Kejriwal moved the apex court by way of a writ petition challenging his arrest by the ED on Thursday night. .Kejriwal was on Thursday refused interim protection from arrest by the Delhi High Court.A division bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain of the High Court had said that it was not inclined to grant any such protection at this stage.Subsequently, he was arrested by the ED on Thursday after a late night search at his residence.He then moved the top court.The matter was mentioned on Friday morning before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud who said that it will be heard by a special bench headed Justice Sanjiv Khanna in court room 2.Singhvi then mentioned the plea before court room 2 and Justice Khanna agreed that the special bench also comprising Justices MM Sundresh and Bela Trivedi will hear the matter after regular bench rises.However, Kejriwal subsequently informed the Court that he is withdrawing the plea.Interestingly, the same special bench had on Friday morning denied relief to K Kavitha, a Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader and daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao in relation to the same case.The ED’s money laundering probe stems from a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 17, 2022 in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi Excise Policy for 2021-22. The CBI case was registered on a complaint made by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on July 20, 2022. It has been alleged that a criminal conspiracy was hatched by AAP leaders, including former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and other unidentified and unnamed private persons/entities during the stage of the policy’s formulation.The conspiracy, it has been alleged, stemmed from some of the loopholes “intentionally” left or created in the policy. These were allegedly meant to favour some licensees and conspirators post the tender process.The Delhi CM was called for questioning by the federal agency nine times previously. However, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor chose to skip the summons each time.He termed the agency's summons malicious and said that the agency was being misused by the government for political motives.Sisodia and AAP Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Sanjay Singh are already behind bars in the case.On March 15, 2024, the ED also arrested K Kavitha who is also behind the bars after the Court denied relief to her today. .[Read order]