Arvind Kejriwal To Remain In Jail As Delhi HC Stays Bail Granted To Him In Liquor Policy Case — All About It

In a big setback for Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday (25 June) stayed the trial court order granting bail to the Delhi Chief Minister in the excise policy case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

A single judge bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain passed the order while hearing ED’s application seeking stay of trial court order which had granted bail to Kejriwal on 20 June.

The High Court said the trial court did not give adequate opportunity to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to put forth its arguments on not granting bail to Kejriwal, and that it didn't apply its mind during its judgment, India Today reported.

"Observation by trial court that voluminous material cannot be considered is totally unjustified and it shows that the trial court has not applied its mind to the material. The vacation court ought to give adequate opportunity to ED to argue bail application," the High Court said.

The bench said the trial court did not lay out the conditions for Kejriwal's release under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), under which the Chief Minister was charged in the case.

"The trial court should not have given any finding, which is opposite to the finding of the High Court. The documents and arguments were not appreciated properly," the bench said.

The High Court said that the finding of the trial court that there was malafides on ED's part was incorrect since the High Court itself had in earlier order rejected such a claim by Kejriwal.

"Most important, the ASG referred to para 27 of the trial court order where the judge talks about mala fide by the ED. But this court is of the opinion that a coordinate bench of this court has said there was no mala fide on the part of the ED. Trial court should not have given any finding which is opposite to the finding of the High Court," the single-judge underlined, Bar and Bench reported.

"This court has (therefore) decided that the vacation judge (in the Rouse Avenue Court, Niyay Bindu) did not appropriately appreciate material on record and the averments of ED," the High Court said.

"Accordingly, the application is allowed and operation of the impugned order is stayed."

On 20 June, Special Judge Niyay Bindu of Rouse Avenue Court granted bail to the CM and declined the ED’s plea to keep the bail order in abeyance for 48 hours.

This prompted the ED to approach the High Court last Friday.

On 21 June, the HC had put the trial court order on hold while reserving its verdict on ED’s stay application.

On Monday (24 June), the Supreme Court had said it will wait for the High Court verdict and hear his plea against the HC move on 26 June.

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