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Kejriwal withdraws Petition against arrest from Supreme Court

Will argue against the arrest in lower court

 

Arvind Kejriwal has become the first sitting Chief Minister to have been arrested

The Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has withdrawn his petition from the Supreme Court, against his arrest by the Enforement Directorate. Senior Lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, told the Bench that he would argue against the arrest before the remand judge in the trial court. The CM will now approach the lower court 

The Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi CM will be produced before a special PMLA court by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) where the ED will ask for his remand to facilitate custodial interrogation.  The Delhi Chief Minister has till now skipped nine summons by the Enforcement Directorate in this matter.

Subsequent to the Enforcement Directorate arresting Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal in the Excise-Policy linked Money Laundering case, the Supreme Court had set the time for hearing the CM's plea challenging his arrest. The three judge bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Bela Trivedi were scheduled to hear Kejriwal's petition against the arrest at 1030am on 22 March. 

How Court hearing progressed:

  • At 1043am the SC bench led by CJI assembled and Sr Adv AM Singhvi rose to mention. The CJI said that a special bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna has been convened and directed Singhvi to go before the court, where the matter will be taken up immediately. The action then shifted to Court 2 of the SC, where the three judge bench comprising of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, MM Sundresh and Bela Trivedi were directed to take up the matter. 
  • At 12:29pm, the Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing on behalf of Arvind Kejriwal, said before the three judge bench that he will be withdrawing the petition as it was clashing with the remand hearing. He said that they will argue the remand and return.

The Delhi High Court had earlier refused Kejriwal interim protection from arrest subsequent to which the ED team arrested him from his official residence on Thursday, 21 March. Former Dy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodiya and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh are already behind bars in the said case. K Kavitha, the daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister was also arrested on 15 March.