No special standards required to arrest CM for money laundering, ED tells SC
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday filed a comprehensive affidavit in the Supreme Court to counter Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s petition challenging his arrest in the Delhi excise policy case, underlining that there are no special provisions under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) that differentiates the arrest of a chief minister and an ordinary citizen.
“There are no different provisions in PMLA, 2002 for different standards of evidence to be available to arrest a chief minister or a common citizen and the petitioner, by emphasising his position, is attempting to carve out a special category for himself which cannot be accepted...Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of NCT of Delhi is the kingpin and key conspirator of the Delhi excise scam,” ED said.
Responding to the affidavit, an AAP spokesperson accused ED of “manufacturing lies at behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party”. “Today, nobody in the country has any doubts that ED is a political wing of the BJP... ED gets its directions from the BJP headquarters,” the official said.
The BJP did not respond to requests seeking comment.
In its affidavit, ED stressed that the decision to arrest Kejriwal was made based on substantial evidence and legal grounds, denying the AAP convener’s contention regarding the timing of his arrest — that it was to disable him from campaigning for his party during the Lok Sabha polls — and highlighting the CM’s alleged evasion of investigation for six months during which he skipped nine of the agency’s summonses.
“The arrest of a person...for commission of offence based on material, can never violate concept of free and fair polls... treating a politician differently from an ordinary criminal in a matter of arrest would amount to arbitrary and irrational exercise of power of arrest which would violate the principle of equality enshrined under the Constitution’s Article 14,” ED said.
A differential treatment in favour of a politician who is guilty of offence of money laundering, ED said, would violate “rule of law” and the basic structure of the Constitution.
A bench led by justice Sanjiv Khanna is expected to hear Kejriwal’s petition against the April 9 order of the Delhi high court on April 29.
It had on April 15 issued notice on his plea but declined to take up his appeal for an interim release in relation to the money laundering probe linked to Delhi excise policy case until the ED responds.