Kejriwal moves Supreme Court challenging Delhi HC stay on his bail granted by trial court

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday has moved to the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court order putting a stay on his bail granted by a trial court in connection with the liquor policy scam case. According to his advocates the matter, in all likeness will be mentioned before the Apex court on Monday, seeking an urgent hearing. The Delhi High Court has reserved its order after initially putting a stay on the bail for two days after Enforcement Directorate (ED) challenged the trail court decision granting a bail to the chief minister. 

ED had moved to Delhi HC, hours before Kejriwal was expected to come out of the Tihar Jail. Kejriwal has been arrested by the Central Agency on charges of alleged money laundering on March 21, pertaining to the now scrapped excise police that ED claimed had allowed kickbacks allegedly benefitting AAP. Kejriwal was however granted an interim bail by the Supreme Court ahead of Lok Sabha Elections. His interim bail lasted till June 1 and as per the Supreme Court order, the AAP convener had surrendered before the Tihar jail authorities on June 2. 

Special Judge Niyay Bindu of Rouse Avenue Court had granted regular bail to Kejriwal on June 20 and had declined the ED’s plea to keep the bail order in abeyance for 48 hours. Delhi High Court single-judge bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain on its part has said “Arguments are heard. Order is reserved. Till the pronouncement of the order on the stay application, the operation of the impugned (trial court) order is stayed.”

In its petition challenging the regular bail, the ED had argued that the trial court's order was "perverse" and suffered from serious procedural irregularities. AAP, like before has maintained that ED has been working at the behest of BJP and the investigation was part of “vindictive politics”. Kejriwal has challenged to prove any money trail involving him, even if the amount is a single rupee.