Undertrial Prisoners Have No Right To...": Arvind Kejriwal Bail Hearing

Arvind Kejriwal - arrested by the ED last month in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam - was sent Tuesday to Delhi's Tihar Jail till April 15 after spending over 10 days in the agency's custody.

New Delhi: 

Delhi Chief Minister and the Enforcement Directorate traded sharp barbs and hard-nosed legal arguments in equal measure Wednesday, as the Delhi High Court heard the Aam Aadmi Party boss' plea for interim relief. Mr Kejriwal was arrested last month - and has been sent to the national capital's Tihar Jail till April 15 - for his role as the "kingpin" in the alleged.

During the arguments Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the ED, issued a strong rejoinder to arguments about the timing of Mr Kejriwal's arrest, declaring "criminals are supposed to be arrested and put in jail". "Under-trial prisoners have no right to say, 'we will commit a crime and we will not be arrested because elections are here'. This is completely ridiculous," Mr Raju declared.

Earlier, appearing for Mr Kejriwal, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi began his argument by claiming "sole purpose of the arrest (of the Delhi Chief Minister) is to humiliate... incapacitate" the AAP, which is seen by many as the only real challenger to the BJP for Delhi's seven Lok Sabha seats

Efforts are being made to break AAP," he said, arguing that the ED "does not have any evidence" and that the arrest of the sitting Chief Minister was unwarranted, particularly before an election.

After hearing both sides, the court reserved its order for Thursday afternoon.

What Enforcement Directorate Said

"Suppose a political person commits a murder before the election. Will he not be arrested? Will his arrest harm (the election)? You commit a murder and say I cannot be arrested because it will violate..." Mr Raju declared, trying to draw a parallel to the corruption charges against Mr Kejriwal.

The ED - which Mr Kejriwal earlier said had no real evidence of his involvement, much less his central role in the alleged scam - also insisted "a money trail is there... we have traced the money trail".

The ED further waved away claims by Mr Kejriwal that his arrest and that of ex-Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, was largely based on statements by accused-turned-approvers.

The AAP has pointed to a pattern - the first of multiple statements do not name party leaders, and it is only after arrest and questioning that the accused-turned-approvers change their statements.

Responding to this - which question was also posed by the Supreme Court Tuesday, as it gave AAP MP Sanjay Singh bail - Mr Raju argued accused persons may change their statement after being presented with evidence. "When accused is confronted with material (then) they say 'I was wrong'."

You cannot avoid statements and say, 'No, no... these cannot be trusted. Cash payment was made... cash that was not accounted for. Source of the cash was a bribe... it could be ₹ 100 crore or a little less than that. This has been accepted by the AAP candidate as well," he continued.

"We have WhatsApp chats and statements of hawala operators. We have a lot of data..."

In a detailed pushback to arguments by Mr Kejriwal's lawyer, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the Additional Solicitor General insisted the Chief Minister is "personally involved in all of this".

Mr Singhvi earlier argued the ED "does not have any evidence" and that the agency made no attempt to first take his statement; this was when an ED team was at the Chief Minister's residence.

"'Level playing field' (before an election) is not just a phrase. It is part of 'free and fair elections' which is part of a democratic structure. This case reeks of timing issues," Mr Singhvi began.