Delhi excise policy case: Supreme Court to consider Arvind Kejriwal's plea against ED arrest for urgent hearing

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to consider a plea for urgent hearing by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal against the Delhi High Court's judgment upholding his arrest and remand in the 2022 liquor policy case.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi appearing for Kejriwal mentioned the matter before a bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

He said this was an urgent matter related to Delhi Chief Minister. He claimed the arrest was based on a document suppressed from the petitioner.

"Please end an email (for urgent hearing), we will look into it," the bench told him.

The Delhi High Court had on April 9 rejected Kejriwal's plea challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate noting that "the arrest was legal".

"The arrest of Arvind Kejriwal was not in contravention of the legal provisions. The remand can't be held to be illegal," Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said.

Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in the case after his failure to appear before the ED in response to nine summons. He is currently under the judicial custody.

"The material collected by the ED reveals that Kejriwal conspired and was involved in formulation of excise policy and used proceeds of crime. He is also allegedly involved in personal capacity in formulation of policy and demanding kickbacks and secondly in the capacity of national convenor of AAP," the HC had said.

The High Court had also rejected contention by Kejriwal on approvers statements, saying merely because approver chose to reveal some facts at a later stage, the statements can't be disregarded.

It also pointed out the law on approvers was over 100 years old, and the recording of their statements is not in the domain of the investigating agency.