India court puts final stay on bail order for opposition leader in money laundering case News
RAJINDER PAL SINGH BRAR, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
India court puts final stay on bail order for opposition leader in money laundering case

The Delhi High Court put a final stay on the bail order granted by the trial court for the chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday. The trial court of Delhi, the capital of India, approved the bail plea for Kejriwal on June 20 with a bail bond of INR 100,000 in the money laundering case linked to a liquor policy excise scam.

The high court bench headed by Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain, while approving the request of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to stay the trial court’s order, claimed that the trial court failed to apply its mind and “appropriately appreciate”  the materials submitted before it by the ED. The high court bench also stated:

The personal liberty as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution cannot be deprived to a citizen except with the procedure established by law. The respondent was arrested on 21.03.2024 for further investigation when the respondent did not join investigation despite issuance of 9 summon…It is worth mentioning that operation of the judgment dated 09.04.2024 was not stayed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court. So at this stage it cannot be said that arrest and remand of the respondent was not in accordance with law and personal liberty of the respondent was curtailed without following procedure established by law.

Justice Jain also remarked that Kejriwal was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court on 10 June 2024 on grounds of the ongoing 18th Lok Sabha elections and not on the merits of the case. And therefore, the “serious” grounds raised by the ED requires serious consideration by the court.

After the bail plea was accepted by the Delhi trial court on June 20, the ED moved to the Delhi high court for urgent appeal to put stay on the grant of bail. The bench put interim stay on the bail order for Kejriwal and put the matter for final hearing for Tuesday. The interim stay order was challenged before the Supreme Court by Kejriwal. The Supreme Court found it “unusual” for the high court to grant interim stay in the present case, asserting that interim orders are usually not reserved but declared on the same day.

Kejriwal was alleged by the ED to be involved in the liquor policy scam through the Excise Policy 2021-22 of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government. Kejriwal, being the chief minister of Delhi and AAP’s leader, has been accused of money laundering and was arrested on March 22, 2024.

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