Setback for Arvind Kejriwal: Delhi HC stays trial court order granting him bail in excise policy case

Delhi High Court on Tuesday announced its order on the Enforcement Directorate's petition seeking a stay on the Rouse Avenue Court's recent order. The recent order by the Rouse Avenue Court granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy scam. 

In a major setback to Kejriwal, the High Court bench, chaired by Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain, stayed the trial court's order that granted bail to the Delhi CM in the excise policy case.

The court was of the opinion that documents and arguments were not heard properly in the trial court, while impugning the order. The court further said that the observation by the trial court that "voluminous material" can't be considered is totally unjustified.

HC bench added this shows the trial court hasn't applied its mind to the material, while mentioning the vacation court ought to give adequate opportunity to the ED to argue the bail application, Bar and Bench reported. The court then laid down the facts that the trial court judge did not factor in while announcing his order. The court said allegations under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act were not deliberated by the judge.

"Most important, the ASG referred to para 27 of the trial court order where the judge talks about mala fide by the ED. But this court is of the opinion that a coordinate bench of this court has said there was no mala fide on the part of the ED," the High Court said in its order.  The Delhi High Court also mentioned that the trial court also did not deal with Section 70 of the PMLA. 

The bench also said that once Arvind Kejriwal's plea challenging arrest has been dismissed by the High Court, it cannot be said his personal liberty was "curtailed in violation of the law."

Trial court's relief to Kejriwal

The Rouse Avenue Court granted the relief to the AAP leader on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh but imposed certain conditions including he will not try to hamper the probe or influence the witnesses. Furthermore, the judge also directed Kejriwal to appear before the court whenever required and to cooperate with the investigation.

It also declined the ED's request to stay the bail order for 48 hours. 

ED moves High Court

After this, the Enforcement Directorate moved the High Court and sought a stay on the trial court's order, which granted Kejriwal regular bail. The High Court, however, reserved its order on the central agency's plea and imposed an interim stay on Arvind Kejriwal's release from jail. 

Kejriwal then moved the Supreme Court but did not get any immediate relief. The top court refused to give any immediate order to overturn the Delhi High Court's order. The Supreme Court asked both Arvind Kejriwal and the ED to wait for the High Court's judgement. 

The top court will give its order on Kejriwal's plea on June 26. 

Shortly after the Delhi HC refused to grant him protection from arrest on petitions challenging the summonses issued to him by the ED, the central agency arrested Arvind Kejriwal on March 21 in connection with the excise policy case. 

On May 21, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to the Delhi CM for a period of 21 days till June to campaign for the Lok Sabha polls. The top court also asked Kejriwal to surrender himself before Tihar jail authorities on June 2 and has been there since then. Later, the trial court denied Kejriwal interim bail on June 5 which he sought citing several medical conditions.