Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s plea against his arrest, saying he didn’t cooperate with the Central agency despite multiple summons given to him.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was avoiding interrogation by not remaining present before the investigating officer despite being summoned nine times, ED stated to the Supreme Court.
ED stated in its affidavit “”Kejriwal, by his conduct, has, himself, contributed and aided the investigating officer regarding the existence of the necessity to arrest, apart from the material in possession of the IO to form the satisfaction that he is guilty of the offense of money laundering”,
ED also added that Arvind Kejriwal was arrested bona fide and not for any mala fide or extraneous reasons. The federal agency said, “It is categorically denied that the arrest was mala fide,”
The affidavit mentioned, “The arrest of a person, however high he may be, for the commission of offense based on material, can never violate the concept of free and fair elections….Treating a politician 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,”
Reacting to ED’s affidavit, AAP stated, “The ED has become nothing but a machine for telling lies. Each time the ED comes up with new manufactured lies at the whims of their masters, the BJP.”
The high court on April 9th, 2024, upheld Kejrwal’s arrest, saying that there wasn’t any illegality about it, and the ED was left with no options after he decided to keep skipping repeated summons and refused to join the official investigations.
