Delhi HC to hear Kejri’s plea against ED today
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday will hear CM Arvind Kejriwal’s petition challenging the summonses issued to him by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with its probe into an excise policy-linked money laundering case.
Kejriwal, arrested by the agency on March 21 after the high court refused to grant him interim protection from coercive action, has also challenged the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act with respect to arrest, questioning and grant of bail.
The AAP national convenor had approached the high court in the wake of the ninth summons issued by the ED asking him to appear before it on March 21. The high court bench on March 20 asked the ED to file its reply with respect to the maintainability of the petition.
The next day, it asked ED to also respond to Kejriwal’s plea seeking protection from arrest, saying ‘at this stage’ it was not inclined to grant any interim relief. Kejriwal was arrested by ED later that evening and is presently in judicial custody.
In the plea, Kejriwal has raised several issues, including whether a political party is covered under the anti-money laundering law. It alleged that the arbitrary procedure under PMLA was being used to create a non-level playing field for the general elections to “skew the electoral process in the favour of the ruling party at the Centre”.
Stating the petitioner is a ‘vocal critic’ of the ruling party, a partner of the INDIA bloc, the plea claimed that the ED being in control of the Union government has been ‘weaponized’.
‘Tihar now seeking diabetologist’
Delhi Cabinet Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj Sunday alleged that Tihar authorities have now requested a diabetologist from AIIMS in contradiction of their earlier stance of adequate medical facilities for diabetics being present in the prison.
“Yesterday (April 20), the director general (Prisons) wrote to AIIMS, asking for a diabetologist to be posted at Tihar. Kejriwal has been lodged at Tihar for nearly 20 days and they are asking for a diabetologist only now,” Bharadwaj said at a press conference here.
The Tihar administration responded to the charge that appropriate senior specialists from AIIMS provided consultation to Kejriwal through video conference on Saturday.