Excise case: Kejriwal seeks early hearing in SC on his plea against HC

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Wednesday said he will look into Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals request for an early listing of his plea against a high court order upholding his arrest He asked Kejriwals lawyer to send an emailEarlier in the day Kejriwal moved the Supreme Court against the April 9 judgement of the high courtI will look into the email seeking early listing of plea Please send the mail CJI Chandrachud told senior advocate and Kejriwals counsel Abhishek SinghviThis is urgent and is regarding the Delhi chief minister The arrest is based on an unrelied document and suppressed from us Singhvi saidIn a massive blow to the chief minister the Delhi High Court on Tuesday upheld his arrest in a money laundering case stemming from the alleged excise policy scam saying the Enforcement Directorate ED was left with little option after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigationA singlejudge bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma also cited the EDs claim that Kejriwal conspired and was actively involved in the use and concealment of the proceeds of crime to reject his petition against his arrestIt chastised the AAP leader claimed to have been involved in money laundering in his personal capacity and in his capacity as the national convenor of the political party for questioning the timing of his arrest and underlined that an investigation against the classes and masses cannot be differentIt also rebuked Kejriwal for casting aspersions on the judicial process with his claim about an approver making donations to the BJP through electoral bonds saying the law relating to approvers was over 100 years old and was not enacted to implicate the politicianThe high court asserted that there was no contravention of legal provisions as the ED had enough material in its possession to nail himCourts are concerned with constitutional morality and not political morality it saidThe material which has been encapsulated reveals that Sh Arvind Kejriwal had allegedly conspired with other persons and was involved in the formulation of Delhi Excise Policy 202122 in the process of demanding kickbacks from the South Group as well as in generation use and concealment of proceeds of crime said the court in its 106page orderThe court noted there were statements of witnesses including approvers which reflect that Kejriwal was allegedly personally involved in formulation of the excise policy and primafacie in process of demanding kickbacks from the South Group in exchange of favoursThe high court however clarified that it was not dealing with Kejriwals bail plea but his writ petition challenging the arrest on certain groundsThe matter pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi governments excise policy for 202122 that was later scrappedKejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 hours after the high court refused to grant him protection from coercive action by the federal antimoney laundering agencyHe is in judicial custody till April 15 and is currently lodged in Tihar jail