Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday withdrew his plea from the Supreme Court of India challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Kejriwal, informed the top court that the AAP leader is withdrawing the petition due to conflicts with the remand proceedings.
The decision by the Aam Aadmi Party chief comes shortly after Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha, who was arrested last week in the same case, had her petition rejected by the top court. Interestingly, the bench that handled Kavitha's case had also been assigned to hear the plea by Arvind Kejriwal.
It is expected that CM Kejriwal will now approach a lower court, while following the protocol.
In the SC's hearing, Kavitha was told to seek relief, including bail, from the trial court. A bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice MM Sundresh, and Justice Bela Trivedi declined to entertain the petition. The court stated that it could not permit individuals, even if they held positions of influence such as a senior political leader or a Chief Minister, to bypass the lower courts and directly approach it.
Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case related to money laundering linked to the excise policy scam on Thursday night. The federal probe agency conducted searches at Kejriwal’s residence in Civil Lines. The arrest came after the AAP leader skipped as many as nine summons from the agency in connection with the case.
Earlier today, AAP Delhi ministers Atishi Marlena Singh and Saurabh Bharadwaj were detained by the police at ITO in Delhi after the party workers and leaders staged massive protests against the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. After being detained, Bharadwaj alleged that Kejriwal's family has been put under house arrest. "We will state before the Supreme Court that Arvind Kejriwal should be allowed to meet his lawyer and family and also allowed to carry out his official work," he was seen shouting from the bus he was detained in.