The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday filed a petition in the Delhi High Court challenging the acquittal of former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in two separate cases. These cases were registered due to his not appearing before the agency despite summons issued in a matter related to excise policy.
On Wednesday (April 2), Justice Swarn Kanta Sharma's bench will hear ED's appeal against the trial court's January 22 orders. The investigating agency alleged that the then Chief Minister deliberately disobeyed its orders by not responding to the summons and not joining the investigation. It was also alleged that Kejriwal raised baseless objections and deliberately made excuses for not joining the investigation.
In its decision, the lower court had said that ED failed to prove that Arvind Kejriwal knowingly violated the summons issued to him. The ED has alleged that other accused in this case were in contact with Kejriwal and had helped in formulating the excise policy which has now been cancelled. As a result of this policy he got unfair advantage and Aam Aadmi Party got bribe.
Arvind Kejriwal is currently on interim bail in the money laundering case. The Supreme Court had granted him interim bail. The Court had sent the questions related to the necessity and necessity of arrest in the net money laundering case to a larger bench for in-depth deliberations.
On February 27, the trial court had acquitted Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and 21 others in a corruption case related to the excise scam, saying the CBI's case completely failed judicial scrutiny and was proved to be completely baseless. The CBI's appeal against the acquittal of Kejriwal and others is pending in the High Court.
