New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday (December 11) adjourned to January 17 next year hearing on a plea filed by the Enforcement Directory (ED) challenging a trial court order granting former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal regular bail in an excise policy-linked money laundering case.
The counsel appearing for the ED urged Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri to defer the hearing in the matter as Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju was unavailable.
Kejriwal’s counsel opposed the request of the ED to defer the hearing on its plea challenging the regular bail granted to Kejriwal by the trial court in the money laundering case.
What did Kejriwal’s counsel say?
Senior advocate Vikram Chaudhary, who appeared for Kejriwal, opposed the request made by the ED counsel, citing “pressing urgency” in the matter and said that the ED should withdraw its plea challenging the trial court order and the High Court should vacate its stay on the operation of the trial court order granting regular bail to Kejriwal.
“You can’t have a sword hanging on my head,” Chaudhary said, news agency PTI reported.
The ED counsel, however, said that Kejriwal was already on bail in the case granted by the Supreme Court.
The High Court adjourned the matter and posted it for hearing on January 17 next year.
Trial court granted regular bail to Kejriwal in money laundering case on June 20
The trial court granted Kejriwal regular bail in the money laundering case on June 20. The operation of the trial court order was later stayed by the High Court after the trial court order was challenged by the ED before the High Court.
The Supreme Court on July 12 granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the money laundering case while referring his plea challenging his arrest in the money laundering case to a larger.
ED arrested Kejriwal in money laundering case on March 21
The ED arrested Kejriwal in the money laundering case on March 21. He was also arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in an excise policy-linked corruption case and was released from the Tihar Jail, where he was lodged in judicial custody, on September 13 after he was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the corruption case.
