The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court strongly opposing interim bail for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi excise policy case. In its affidavit, the ED argued that politicians cannot claim a special status higher than that of ordinary citizens and are equally liable to be arrested and detained for committing offences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is absolutely no principle that justifies giving differential treatment to a politician for campaigning over a farmer or a businessman who wishes to pursue his vocation,\u201d the ED stated in its affidavit. The agency contended that granting interim bail merely for political campaigning would go against the principle of equality, as the work, business, profession, or activity of every citizen is equally important.<\/p>\n
The ED\u2019s affidavit comes in response to Kejriwal\u2019s plea seeking interim bail for six weeks to prepare for and campaign in the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections. Kejriwal\u2019s counsel had argued that denying him bail would hamper the Aam Aadmi Party\u2019s prospects in the elections and undermine the interests of democracy.<\/p>\n
However, the ED strongly opposed this argument, stating that campaigning in elections cannot be considered a ground for interim bail. The agency highlighted that Kejriwal is accused of serious economic offences and granting him interim bail could potentially lead to tampering of evidence or influencing witnesses.<\/p>\n
The Delhi excise policy case involves alleged irregularities and corruption in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi government\u2019s excise policy for the year 2021-22. The ED has been investigating the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and has arrested several individuals, including Kejriwal\u2019s former deputy Manish Sisodia.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court is expected to hear Kejriwal\u2019s plea for interim bail in the coming days. The outcome of this case could have significant political implications, as Kejriwal\u2019s party, the Aam Aadmi Party, is seeking to expand its footprint across various states, including Gujarat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The ED\u2019s affidavit comes in response to Kejriwal\u2019s plea seeking interim bail for six weeks to prepare for and campaign in the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":366,"featured_media":16387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[9624,9625,783,10286,10023,3339],"class_list":["post-16386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","tag-arvind-kejriwal","tag-ed","tag-enforcement-directorate","tag-excise-policy-case","tag-kejriwal","tag-supreme-court"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}