BREAKING | Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal Withdraws Petition In Supreme Court Against ED Arrest, Says Will Fight Remand

In a turn of events, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has withdrawn from the Supreme Court his petition challenging arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy case.

Although a Special Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi was set to take up the plea later in the day, Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, mentioned the matter before Justice Sanjiv Khanna, while he was sitting with Justice Dipankar Datta. 

"Because [ED] remand is clashing, decided to withdraw it...will fight the remand and come back to your Lordships," Singhvi said.

Justice Khanna replied, "You need not be present, you may go there".

Singhvi added, "I'll give a letter to the Registry...just kindly tell your Court master".

"Okay give a letter to the Registry", said Justice Khanna.

ED is expected to produce the AAP leader in a Delhi court today to seek his remand.

It may be noted that earlier in the day, the bench comprising Justices Khanna, Sundresh and Trivedi had refused to consider the plea for bail raised by BRS leader K Kavitha, who was also arrested by the ED in the Delhi Liquor Policy case, in her Article 32 petition. Stating that statutory remedies cannot be bypassed just because a politician was involved, the bench asked Kavitha to approach the trial court for bail. In February, the same bench had refused to entertain Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren's plea against his arrest by the ED asking him to approach the High Court.

Kejriwal's matter was initially mentioned before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud this morning, when the CJI asked the counsels to approach the Special Bench assembled in Court 2 (this Bench heard K Kavitha's writ against her arrest by the ED).

Earlier yesterday, a division bench of Delhi High Court had denied the AAP leader interim protection from coercive action by the ED. “We have heard both sides. However, at this stage, we are not inclined [to pass any order],” a division bench comprising Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Manoj Jain had said. Following the decision of the court, a 12-member team of the probe agency reached his residence in the evening to conduct search and served the summons on him.

Prior to these developments, CM Kejriwal had skipped 9 ED summons, claiming that they were illegal. ED had filed two criminal complaints against the Minister, alleging non-compliance of the summons. Last week, the CM appeared before the ACMM court and was granted bail in the case for non-compliance of the summons, subject to conditions.

Case Title: Arvind Kejriwal v. Directorate of Enforcement, Diary No. 13598/2024

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