Kejriwal's plea 'listed' on 6 May despite order to list next week, SC told

The petition filed by incarcerated Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging his arrest and subsequent remand by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the excise policy case was mentioned before the Supreme Court on Friday, 26 April.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the AAP supremo, apprised a bench headed by justice Sanjiv Khanna that as per the computer-generated case status, Kejriwal’s plea is shown to be tentatively listed on 6 May despite the court’s direction to list the matter next week.

“You move an email. We will take it,” justice Khanna told Singhvi.

In response, Singhvi said that he would email the application seeking an urgent listing of the matter.

In the last hearing, the bench, also comprising justice Dipankar Datta, had issued notice to ED and ordered Kejriwal’s special leave petition to be listed in the week commencing 29 April for further hearing.

The apex court had asked the federal anti-money laundering agency to file its reply by 24 April and allowed the petitioner side to file a rejoinder affidavit, if any, by 27 April.

The affidavit filed by ED’s deputy director said that Kejriwal’s petition is devoid of merit and his arrest was necessitated due to his “total non-co-operative attitude”.

The affidavit said that Kejriwal was avoiding interrogation by not remaining present before the investigating officer despite being summoned nine times and while recording his statement under section 17 of the PMLA he was avoiding answering questions by being evasive and totally non-cooperative.

CM Kejriwal has approached the Supreme Court challenging the dismissal of his plea by the Delhi High Court.

Earlier, a bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of the Delhi High Court took note of the ED's submission that the federal anti-money laundering agency had enough material, including statements from approvers and allegations of involvement in the formulation of the excise policy, which had led them to arrest him.