The Supreme Court on Thursday heard Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea challenging the Delhi High Court verdict upholding his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the excise policy case. The top court, last week, allowed Kejriwal’s release on interim bail till June 1 for campaigning during Lok Sabha Election 2024.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, while hearing the matter, refused to consider ED’s objection to Kejriwal’s statement that if people vote for AAP, he will not go back to jail.
“Arvind Kejriwal has said that if you vote for me then I do not have to go to jail on June 2. How can Arvind Kejriwal say this,” Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta asked raising ED’s objection.
Kejriwal’s counsel Abhishek Manu Shinghvi then refers to a Union Minister’s statement on interim bail to the Delhi CM.
While commenting on interim bail to Kejriwal, the top court said that the bench did not make any exception for anybody and reiterated its verdict regarding the date by which the CM must surrender.
“We welcome criticism of the verdict. We will not go into that. Our order is clear when he has to surrender. It is the order of the Apex court and the rule of law shall be governed by this. We did not make an exception for anybody,” Justice Khanna said.
“Kejriwal should not say this it is like slapping the institution,” the SG opined.
“We will not go into this,” the court added.
“If you push the ‘jhaadu’ (broom) button on May 25, I may not go back to jail,” Kejriwal said had on Sunday at a roadshow in Moti Nagar, under the New Delhi constituency.
The apex court is hearing Kejriwal’s plea challenging the Delhi High Court’s last month verdict upholding his arrest in the case.
The matter relates to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.
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