The Delhi High Court on Monday adjourned hearing in a petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the trial court order granting bail to jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the alleged Delhi Liquor Policy case. The case will be heard on August 6.
The high court had earlier stayed the trial court order granting bail to the Delhi Chief Minister. Last week, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal in ED's case, however he stays in jail as he was also arrested in an alleged corruption case by CBI in Delhi Liquor policy case.
Kejriwal's counsel told the high court that there is a Supreme Court order which grants him interim bail. He further told the court that they need more time as the ED has filed a fresh rejoinder in the plea last night at 11 PM.
Kejriwal's lawyer thus sought more time to file reply to the rejoinder by ED and said that a there is a cognizance order as well in the case which may also require a rejoinder.
Noting that the counsels have sought more time to file a reply, the court posted the matter to August 6.
Earlier, Arvind Kejriwal had filed a reply to the Enforcement Directorate's plea challenging the trial court order and said that he is a "victim of witch-hunt" by ED. He contended that ED's plea seeking cancellation of his bail is not maintainable and is contrary to the previous judgment passed by the Supreme Court. Using ED's own argument against it, Kejriwal has contended that the trial court Judge who granted bail to Kejriwal was not supposed to conduct a “mini trial.”
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal stated that he is a "victim of witch-hunt and Standard Modus Operandi adopted by Enforcement Directorate to implicate it’s given targets wherein the Enforcement Directorate uses illegal measures of pressurising the other co-accused and inducing them to make incriminating statement in lieu of 'no-objection' by ED to the grant of bail of such co-accused."
Kejriwal in a detailed reply to ED's plea said that the Special Court that granted him bail had indeed gone through all the relevant material placed before. He tells court that the investigation qua large part of the alleged money trail is still pending and that the order granting bail was indeed based on broad probabilities as laid down by the Supreme Court in Catena of Judgments.