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Synopsis

The Supreme Court today began hearing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's SLP challenging the Delhi High Court's dismissal of his petition contesting his arrest by the ED in the liquor policy scam.

Senior Advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, told the court today that his client's non-cooperation could not be a ground for his arrest.

"Can they say that since I did not co-operate, they will arrest me...can they say that? Non-cooperation can never be incriminatory or a ground for arrest..", he submitted.

Singhvi added Kejriwal was not even an accused or a suspect. There is no corroboration, this is not the basis for arresting a chief minister, the division bench was further told.

"Your (ED) power to arrest is not your obligation to arrest...probable cause should be there, you must have reason to believe...first comes the material..you have to have something which suddenly connects me with guilt..", a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was further told.

Hearing is to continue tomorrow.

Background:

In his latest affidavit, Kejriwal has claimed his arrest in the liquor scam case constituted an unprecedented assault on the tenets of democracy based on 'free and fair elections' and 'federalism', which formed significant constituents of the basic structure of the Constitution.

Kejriwal claimed innocence in the entire case, contending there existed no proof or material demonstrating that the AAP received funds or advanced kickbacks from the South group, utilising them in the Goa election campaign.

Notably, few days back ED had also filed its response submitting that there has been a large-scale destruction of evidence in the entire scam with over 170 mobile phones being destroyed during the entire scam by Kejriwal and others.

"...crucial digital evidences of the Scam and money trail have been actively destroyed by the accused and other persons involved in this scam. Despite such active and criminal destruction of evidence, the agency has been able to recover key evidences which directly reveals the role of the petitioner in process and activities relating to proceeds of crime...", ED's reply added.

ED had further submitted that treating a politician like Kejriwal differently from an ordinary criminal in a matter of arrest would amount to arbitrary and irrational exercise of power of arrest which would violate the principle of equality enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution. 

Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 late evening. He has been in ED's custody since. ED had conducted searches at Delhi Chief Minister's residence following the Delhi High Court's decision to deny him protection from coercive action in an excise policy-related money laundering case.

The case against Kejriwal & allies involves allegations of corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of Delhi's excise policy for 2021-22, which was later scrapped. 

Meanwhile, upon arrest, outside Kejriwal's residence, a crowd gathered, including AAP MLAs and party leaders, protesting the ED's actions. AAP leaders criticized the BJP and ED, alleging political conspiracy and misuse of power to target Kejriwal.

Case Title: ARVIND KEJRIWAL vs. DIRECTORATE OF ENFORCEMENT