We may consider interim bail to Kejriwal in view of LS polls, SC tells ED

The Supreme Court on Friday said it may consider granting interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in a ray of hope to the AAP chief arrested in the excise policylinked money laundering caseKejriwal was arrested on March 21 and is currently lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custodyA bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta told the Enforcement DirectorateED that arguments on Kejriwals plea against his arrest are likely to take time and therefore it was considering hearing the probe agency on the issue of interim bail to him on account of Lok Sabha elections in Delhi Delhi goes to polls on May 25It then told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appearing for the ED to be ready with the case on May 7It appears we cant complete today We will post it on Tuesday morning itself Mr Raju one more thing If it is going to take time and it does appear to us that it may take some time we will then consider the question of interim bail because of the elections the bench told Raju who was wrapping up his arguments for the dayRaju submitted that he will oppose bail to Kejriwal and pointed to the statements made by Aam Aadmi Party AAP leader Sanjay Singh after getting bail last month in the same caseJust look at the kind of statements he is making the ASG saidThe bench said it is putting the agency on notice about the courts intention so that it is not taken by surprise on May 7 when the interim bail issue will be dealt withWe are not commenting on it either way We are just saying we will hear on interim bail and not saying we will grant interim bail We may or may not grant interim bailIt also told senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi appearing for Kejriwal Just one thing more Please also take instructions Because of the position he holds whether he should be signing official filesDuring the hearing Singhvi informed the bench that on March 16 the elections were announced and on March 21 Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on the basis of statements and materials which were available with the agency since last JulyThe bench asked Singhvi about the poll date in Delhi to which he replied that the campaigning will end on May 23 and polling will take place on May 25The top court was also critical of Singhvis arguments that AAP being a political party it will not be covered under section 70 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA which deals with offences by companiesAnything done by a political party cannot be attributed to its President Convenor or General Secretary else it will be a case of vicarious liability A political party is out of the section 70 of the PMLA Singhvi submitted adding that the provision only deals with companiesThe senior lawyer further said that a political party is not a partnership private corporate firm or a society but an entity which is registered under the Representation of the People ActThe bench said It is difficult to accept your arguments AAP is a juristic person and cannot be arrested It can be impleaded as accused Person incharge can be prosecuted along with the juristic person under section 70 of the PMLA Will the society not be covered under section 70 Anyway we have noted your arguments and will deal with itSinghvi said there is no direct evidence of Kejriwal receiving alleged kickbacks and if at all he has then the case will fall under the Prevention of Corruption Act and not the PMLAHe added that all the materials the ED has were covered in the bail case of former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and the court has said that no case is made out based on themThe top court also posed several queries to the ED including on why nine exculpatory statements of witnesses were not mentioned in the grounds of arrest of Kejriwal and why only inculpatory statements were listedRaju replied that the investigating officer though having considered all the material before him is required to only mention the relevant material which make him believe that the accused has committed the offenceI have considered all the material but I need to mention only the relevant material and not irrelevant material The statements which are exculpatory are irrelevant material and if the investigation officer is to record all the material before it then the record will be voluminous and he will not be able to file the chargesheet in 60 days Raju submittedHowever the bench did not agree with the submissions and said the scheme of the law and the 2022 verdict in the Vijay Madanlal Choudhury case have kept section 19 at higher pedestal and therefore the entire material should be before the court at the time of his arrestSection 19 of the PMLA empowers the ED to arrest persons based on the material in its possession providing a reasonable basis to suspect that an individual has committed an offence punishable under the lawThe top court had issued a notice to the ED on April 15 and sought its response to Kejriwals plea against his arrestOn April 9 the high court upheld Kejriwals arrest saying there was no illegality and the ED was left with little option after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigationsThe case relates to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi governments nowscrapped excise policy for 202122This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever