IANS | 26 Apr, 2024
The petition filed by incarcerated Delhi Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal challenging his arrest and subsequent remand by the Enforcement
Directorate (ED) in the excise policy case was mentioned before the
Supreme Court on Friday.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi,
appearing for the AAP supremo, apprised a bench headed by Justice Sanjiv
Khanna that as per the computer-generated case status, Kejriwal’s plea
is shown to be tentatively listed on May 6 despite the court’s direction
to list the matter next week.
“You move an email. We will take it,” Justice Khanna told Singhvi.
In response, Singhvi said that he would email the application seeking an urgent listing of the matter.
In
the last hearing, the Bench, also comprising Justice Dipankar Datta,
had issued notice to ED and ordered Kejriwal’s special leave petition to
be listed in the week commencing April 29 for further hearing.
The
apex court had asked the federal anti-money laundering agency to file
its reply by April 24 and allowed the petitioner side to file a
rejoinder affidavit, if any, by April 27.
The affidavit filed by
ED’s Deputy Director said that Kejriwal’s petition is devoid of merit
and his arrest was necessitated due to his “total non-co-operative
attitude”
The affidavit said that Kejriwal was avoiding
interrogation by not remaining present before the investigating officer
despite being summoned nine times and while recording his statement
under section 17 of the PMLA he was avoiding answering questions by
being evasive and totally non-cooperative.
CM Kejriwal has approached the Supreme Court challenging the dismissal of his plea by the Delhi High Court.
Earlier,
a bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of the Delhi High Court took
note of the ED's submission that the federal anti-money laundering
agency had enough material, including statements from approvers and
allegations of involvement in the formulation of the excise policy,
which had led them to arrest him.