"Are you going to arrest him again?" Delhi HC questions ED on plea seeking canceling of Kejriwal bail order

Aug 07, 2024

New Delhi [India], August 7 : In the Delhi Excise Policy case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has requested a short adjournment to address its plea for the cancellation of bail granted to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The court expressed confusion about the potential consequences of cancelling the bail, questioning whether such a move would result in Kejriwal's re-arrest and saying, "I am confused. Are you going to arrest him again?"
The Delhi High Court has questioned the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on whether canceling Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's bail would lead to his re-arrest. The court's inquiry aims to clarify the implications of the ED's plea for bail cancellation.
The bench of Justice Neena Bansal later, adjourned the matter for September 5, 2024.
Delhi High Court earlier had fixed August 7 for hearing on Enforcement Directorate's plea challenging trial court granted regular bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with Excise policy money laundering case.
ED earlier in its reply stated that there is a a complete disregard to the vicarious role of Arvind Kejriwal under the section 70 of PMLA. Bail granted to him by trial court vacation judge is liable to be canceled, the order granting bail is based on irrelevant consideration or ignores relevant material.
Last month, the Delhi High Court had stayed the trial Court order granting bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal while allowing Enforcement Directorate plea seeking stay on Trial Court order in the excise policy money laundering case.
The vacation bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain while passed the order said, Documents and arguments were not appreciated properly by the trial court properly. This court is of the view that the trial court has not applied its mind and has not considered the material properly, said the court.
Earlier, ED submitted that the impugned order passed by trial court deserves to be stayed and set aside as a vacation judge has returned perverse findings in almost every paragraph of its order on both the facts and the law after admittedly not examining the material placed on record by the prosecution, ED told Delhi High Court.
The Supreme Court on July 12, 2024, passed a judgement over Kejriwal's plea challenging his arrest by ED and granted him interim bail.
The two-judge bench of the Supreme Court also referred the matter to a larger bench question raised by Kejriwal on whether an arrest under Section 19 of PMLA could be quashed on the ground that such an arrest was both needless and unnecessary.