PIL filed before Delhi High Court seeking "extraordinary interim bail" for Arvind Kejriwal

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition has been filed before the Delhi High Court seeking "extraordinary interim bail" for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in all criminal cases till he completes his tenure in office or till the time trials are complete in the cases..The petitioner has filed the plea in the name of "We The People of India" arguing that he is not using his name because he does not want any publicity.It has been argued that he is representing the residents of Delhi. .The plea argued that some people are trying to crush the reputation of Arvind Kejriwal by circulating false news on social media and since his arrest, the entire functioning of the Delhi government has come to a standstill. "The reputation of the Government of NCT of Delhi as well as state of Delhi is going down in the eyes of whole world due to the confinement of the Respondent No.5 i.e. the Chief Minister of the NCT of Delhi in Jail," the plea contended. It said that even the judges cannot return back the time that Kejriwal spends in jail if he is acquitted of the charges. "The Respondent No.5 i.e. the Chief Minister of the NCT of Delhi may be guilty for the alleged offence(s) or may not be guilty for the same, but, it is a well established principal of law that “everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense," the plea said. .The petitioner also cited safety concerns and said that Kejriwal is confined in jail with hard core criminals, who are facing the criminal cases of rape, murder, dacoity and even bomb-blast. "As an example, the Petitioner wants to remind to this Hon’ble High Court that the sitting member of Parliament Sh. Atiq Ahmed, while he was under police escort, at Prayagraj, has been killed by only three clumsy assailants in Police Custody last year and police escort officials could not do anything, except just to save themselves. Not only this, police escort officials took two steps back to save themselves," it was contended. .The petition was filed through advocate Karan Pal Singh..Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on allegations that he was the "key conspirator" in the money laundering case registered in the matter.The arrest took place hours after his plea for interim protection from arrest was rejected by the Delhi High Court.On March 22, Kejriwal was produced by the ED before judge Baweja, who initially remanded the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader to ED custody till March 28.On March 28, Kejriwal's ED custody was extended further.Finally, on April 1, Kejriwal was remanded to judicial custody till today.