 "Excise policy case: HC halts trial court bail to Kejriwal; order next week")
Embattled Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will have to remain in jail for now with the Delhi High Court (HC) on Friday putting an interim stay on a trial court’s order granting him bail in the money laundering case linked to the alleged excise scam.
The AAP national convenor, who was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), could have walked out of Tihar jail on Friday had the high court not granted the interim relief to the central anti-money laundering agency.
“Till the pronouncement of this order, the operation of the impugned order shall remain stayed,” a vacation Bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain said and asked the parties to file written submissions by June 24.
The high court said it was reserving the order for 2-3 days as it wanted to go through the entire records.
It also issued notice to Kejriwal seeking his response on ED’s plea challenging the trial court’s June 20 order by which he was granted bail. It listed the plea for hearing on July 10.
The HC also said that the trial court order shall not be given effect to till it hears the ED’s plea challenging the relief granted in the money laundering case.
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The ED mentioned its plea challenging the trial court order for an urgent hearing before a Bench of Justices Sudhir Kumar Jain and Ravinder Dudeja.
The ED had challenged the trial court’s order passed on Thursday evening, where a Delhi court had said that the ED had failed to furnish direct evidence linking Kejriwal to the proceeds of crime in the money laundering case against him.
The trial court order was made available to the media on Friday.