In the meantime, Kejriwal’s wife, Sunita, who was supposed to meet the Delhi CM in Tihar jail has also been denied the permission for visit.
New Delhi: In a major development, the Supreme Court will hear on Monday a plea by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging his arrest in the money laundering case in the alleged excise policy scam. In the meantime, Kejriwal’s wife, Sunita, who was supposed to meet the Delhi CM in Tihar jail has also been denied the permission for visit.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta is likely to hear the matter. Kejriwal had earlier told the apex court that his “illegal arrest” in the case constitutes an unprecedented assault on the tenets of democracy based on “free and fair elections” and “federalism”.
In a rejoinder to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) reply affidavit filed on his petition challenging his arrest in the case, Kejriwal said the mode, manner and timing of his arrest just before the Lok Sabha elections when the Model Code of Conduct had come into play, speaks volumes about the “arbitrariness” of the agency.
Kejriwal claimed it is a “classical case” of how the Centre has misused the ED and its wide powers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to “crush” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leaders.
The DELHI cm claimed that the ED illegally ‘picked up’ a sitting chief minister and the national convenor of one of the national Opposition parties, five days after the general elections were announced and the Model Code of Conduct came into force.
He said a level playing field, which is a pre-requisite for ‘free and fair elections’, has clearly been compromised with his illegal arrest.
“Whether such statements could qualify as materials to reach the conclusion of guilt as envisaged under section 19 PMLA to justify the arrest of a sitting chief minister of NCT of Delhi or a national convenor of a national political party in India in the midst of general elections,” it asked.
In the rejoinder, Kejriwal alleged the only objective of the ED was to procure and obtain some statement against him and as soon as the statement was taken, the mission of the probe agency was accomplished and thereafter, the co-accused were neither arrested nor any further statements were taken.
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