Delhi Court remands Arvind Kejriwal to ED custody till March 28 in Excise Policy case

A Delhi court on Friday remanded Delhi Chief Minister (CM) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) till March 28 following his arrest last night in the money laundering case connected to Delhi excise policy scam..Special Judge Kaveri Baweja at the Rouse Avenue court passed the remand order after hearing detailed submissions by the ED as well as Kejriwal's counsel..The ED had sought ten days of custody of Kejriwal, saying that he was the key conspirator in the case as he was directly involved in the formulation of the liquor policy."As CM, Arvind Kejriwal was the key conspirator of the conspiracy. He was directly involved in formulation of the policy... He was involved in handling of proceeds of crime as well in the Goa election campaign. Kejriwal is the head of the party," Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju told the Court on behalf of ED.The ASG also said that Kejriwal willfully disobeyed the summons issued to him by the ED and refused to cooperate with the probe."He has willfully disobeyed the summons. The conduct of disobeying the summons... At the times of search he did not give correct facts. He was non cooperative in investigation. We want to interrogate him and gather information," Raju said.Further, he argued that the kickbacks received through the liquor policy scam was used by AAP to fund the Goa assembly elections."There is concrete evidence to show there is a scam and fraud. The excise policy was changed to fund Goa elections for AAP," the ASG said.Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, opposed the ED's plea for remand.He said that statements of witnesses cannot be a ground to arrest him because of the pattern it revealed."There is a new pattern now. You have a witness, he does not name Kejriwal in statement one or statement two. You then arrest him and oppose his bail vehemently. He then turns approver. And one fine day he gives a brilliant statement," Singhvi said.He added there was no direct evidence against Kejriwal except the statements of witnesses."There is no direct evidence except these statements saying I met Mr Kejriwal etc. If people are arrested and pardoned then they will definitely name anyone," Singhvi contended.He also said that this was the first and only time that a sitting chief minister has been arrested in India..Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on Thursday after a late night search at his residence on Thursday.The arrest took place hours after his plea for interim protection from arrest was rejected 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.Kejriwal then moved the Supreme Court challenging his arrest last night, but eventually chose to withdraw that plea this morning. .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 loopholes were allegedly meant to favour some liquor licensees and conspirators post the tender process.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 the daughter of Bharat Rashtra Samiti legislator and former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, K Kavitha in the case.Advocates Zoheb Hossain and Arkaj Kumar also appeared for ED assisting ASG Raju..Read detailed arguments made by parties here.