The Supreme Court on Monday asked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal why a bail application challenging his arrest was not filed by him so far in the excise policy case.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta asked senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi if Kejriwal had filed any bail plea before the trial court.

Responding with a no, Singhvi said, "The writ petition has been filed challenging the arrest."

Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy. He has been lodged in Tihar Jail since April 1 and will remain in judicial custody till May 7.

During the hearing, Singhvi said, "There are no documents that connect him. He is not an accused till the date of arrest. The arrest was done in a motivated manner and in the middle of an election cycle. It also comes especially after the declaration of the schedule of the general elections, and after the declaration of the Model Code of Conduct."

"What was the new material? Or has anything been suddenly recovered which connects him with the crime? A person does not automatically become an accused merely because he has been summoned," he added.

He argued, "Initially, all the people who later implicated him (Kejriwal) had not named him. This arrest solely relies on subsequent, contradictory and highly belated statements of co-accused who have now turned approvers, like Raghav Magunda Reddy, Srinivasalu Reddy, Sarath Reddy and Butchi Babu."

Singhvi said such statements and material were in the possession of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) since the last nine months and yet the arrest had been made illegally in the midst of the Lok Sabha election campaigning.

"The statements of all these approvers are based on hearsay and they have not even met Kejriwal even once. These belated statements were made on inducement of bail and exoneration from the case," he added.

"Either you have imminent material, or there is material on guilt, or some basis which we don't know. The 16th statement was taken from someone behind bars. He got bail later and turned approver. His statement becomes the basis. That statement is from July last year. They arrested him (Kejriwal) in March. I am not saying the Chief Minister has immunity, but does he have lesser rights?" Singhvi further questioned.

He then said, "This is not how you treat a Chief Minister. Since September, no action had been taken. But suddenly they arrested him. He is not a hardened criminal or terrorist who will catch a flight and run away."

Singhvi's arguments led the bench to again question why no bail plea was never applied.

Singhvi said, "I agree I didn't apply for protection from arrest earlier. I have a right to make legal mistakes. He (Kejriwal) was arrested the day he didn't get relief from the Delhi High Court. Grounds for arrest should be culpatory, not because he failed to get protection."

The Supreme Court also questioned as to why Kejriwal had ignored the ED summons in the liquor policy case.

On this, Singhvi said, "A person does not automatically become an accused merely because he has been summoned. I had given written responses."

The hearing remained inconclusive and will continue on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court was hearing a plea filed by Kejriwal challenging his arrest in the excise policy case.

On April 9, the Delhi High Court ruled it had found nothing illegal about the Chief Minister’s arrest.

A single-judge bench of Justice Swarna Kanta based its order on the prima facie, stating that there was adequate material, including statements of approvers, involvement of middlemen and references that cash was handed over for expenditure in the 2022 Goa assembly polls.

Kejriwal has argued that the decision to swoop in and arrest him on March 21, merely days before the general elections, was a carefully calibrated move to create an uneven playing field in favour of the BJP.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the LatestLaws staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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