Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma will hear Kejriwal’s petition at 10:30 am tomorrow. 

In his plea, Kejriwal has sought immediate release on account of the arrest and the subsequent remand to ED being “illegal”.

The Delhi CM was on March 21 and was subsequently remanded to the ED’s custody till March 28 “for his detailed and sustained interrogation”. 

Kejriwal, in his plea, said that he is a “vocal critic” of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre, an opposition leader and a partner in the INDIA bloc, hence, the ED, which is under the Union government’s control, has been “weaponised”.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener had moved the high court last week but according to news agency PTI, citing highly-placed sources his request for an urgent hearing was turned down. The Delhi HC was closed for the festival of Holi.

Kejriwal’s arrest came hours after the Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to grant him protection from coercive action by the federal anti-money laundering agency.

The Delhi CM is the third top AAP leader after Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh to be sent to judicial custody in the excise policy case.

The case pertains to the alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi government‘s excise policy for 2021-22 that was later scrapped.

In the ED’s chargesheet, Kejriwal’s name has been mentioned multiple times. The probing agency has alleged that the accused in the excise policy case were in touch with Kejriwal for formulating the liquor policy that resulted in undue benefits to them in return for which they paid kickbacks to the AAP.

(With agency inputs)

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Published: 26 Mar 2024, 04:24 PM IST