IN A ray of hope to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after 43 days of his arrest in the Excise Policy-linked money laundering case, the Supreme Court on Friday told the Enforcement Directorate to be ready with the case as it may consider hearing arguments on his interim bail on May 7 on account of Lok Sabha polls in Delhi. Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 and is currently lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custody. A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta told Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate (ED), that the hearing on Kejriwal’s plea against arrest is likely to take time and therefore, the court was considering hearing the probe agency on interim bail to him. “It appears we can’t complete today. We will post it on Tuesday morning itself. Mr Raju, one more thing. If it is going to take time and it does appear to us that it may take some time, we will then consider the question of interim bail because of the elections,” the bench told Raju, who was wrapping up his argument for the day.

 

Raju submitted that he will oppose the bail to Kejriwal and pointed out that to the statements made by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh after getting bail last month in the case. “Just, look at the kind of statements he is making,” he said. The bench said it is putting the agency on notice about the court’s intention, so that it is not taken by surprise on May 7, when the interim bail issue will be dealt. “We are not commenting on it either way. We are just saying we will hear on interim bail and not saying we will grant interim bail. We may or may not grant interim bail,” the bench said. It also told senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, “Just one thing more. Please also take instructions. Because of the position he holds, whether he should be signing official files?” During the hearing, Singhvi informed the bench that on March 16 the elections were announced and on March 21, Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on the basis of statements and materials which were available with the agency since last July.