Delhi High Court stays Arvind Kejriwal's bail granted by trial court

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday stayed the trial court order granting bail to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case stemming from the alleged excise scam.

Pronouncing the order, a vacation bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain said that the mandatory conditions under PMLA was properly discussed in the trial court order.

Court further said that the vacation judge did not appreciate Satender Kumar Antil judgment of the SC in right perspective.

Court also observed that the vacation judge did not discuss about the vicarious liability of Kejriwal under section 70 PMLA.

Interim bail was granted for elections, said HC adding that once the arrest and remand of Kejriwal was declared valid by coordinate bench, it can't be said that personal liberty of the applicant was curtailed in violation of law.

HC said that the vacation judge did not appropriately appreciate the material on record and the averments of ED.

"Accordingly the application is allowed and the operation of the impugned order is stayed," ordered the Delhi High Court.

The Delhi High Court had reserved the order on June 21 after the agency challenged the trial court's decision and put it in abeyance until the pronouncement.

The AAP national convenor, who was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), could have walked out of Tihar jail had the high court not granted the interim relief to the central anti-money laundering agency.

The trial court granted bail to Kejriwal on June 20 and ordered his release on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh, and imposed certain conditions, including that he will not try to hamper the investigation or influence the witnesses.

ED has contended that the trial court’s order was “perverse”, “one-sided” and “wrong-sided” and that the findings were based on irrelevant facts.

The excise policy was scrapped in 2022 after the Delhi lieutenant governor ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities and corruption involving its formulation and execution.

According to the CBI and ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours extended to the licence holders.