Kejriwal’s arrest fully legal, enough evidence for further remand, jail: Delhi High Court

NEW DELHI: In a severe shock to the Aam Aadmi Party convener and Delhi CM, the Delhi High court in its order said: “after going through the evidence and material placed by the arresting agency (Enforcement Directorate) and perusal of the papers and other material concerning the arrest, Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest is fully legit and as per the process of law. It also said that there is enough evidence to remand Kejriwal to further custody and deny him bail”.

Regarding the other points raised by Kejriwal’s lawyers, the court said that those points cannot be taken into consideration at this stage and can be examined only at the time of trial, during evidence and cross-examination.

According to a PTI report, the Delhi unit of the BJP said, the Delhi High Court has shown a mirror to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and exposed their ”lies” by rejecting his plea challenging his arrest in the ”liquor scam”.

The Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, who had raised the issue of alleged irregularities in the now scrapped excise policy (2021-22) of the Delhi government in the Assembly, said that Kejriwal should now give up his ”insistence” on running the government from jail and immediately resign from the chief minister’s post.

”If Kejriwal and his party still remain adamant, then the President of India will be left with no other option but to dismiss the government,” Bidhuri said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi High Court dismissed Kejriwal’s petition challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case stemming from the alleged excise scam, saying there was no contravention of legal provisions and that due process was followed.

Besides his arrest, Kejriwal, currently in judicial custody in Tihar jail till April 15, had also challenged his subsequent remand in Enforcement Directorate’s custody, which the court said was not illegal.

The Aam Aadmi Party said it was hopeful of getting relief from the Supreme Court and called the excise policy case the ”biggest political conspiracy” to crush Kejriwal and the AAP governments in Delhi and Punjab.

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said the court order proved that Kejriwal was the ”main conspirator” in the ”liquor scam” and there was ”a lot of crucial evidence” against him.

The ”lies” of AAP in the excise policy case have also been ”exposed” by the court order, he stated.

(With inputs from PTI)