A Delhi court on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal till May 20 in connection with a money laundering case related to the alleged excise policy scandal being probed by the Enforcement Directorate.
It came on a big day for Kejriwal, whose appeal against the ED's arrest was also heard by the Supreme Court. The two-judge bench of the apex court decided to reserve its order on his plea for interim bail, with the judgement expected to be pronounced either on May 9 or the next week when his case comes up for hearing again.
The Special Judge of the Rouse Avenue Court, Kaveri Baweja, has meanwhile extended judicial custody of Kejriwal, which was earlier fixed for a period of 14 days.
While arguing for the continuation of Kejriwal's custody, ASG S. V. Raju submitted on behalf of ED that the investigating agency has every right to further detain in view of the judgment passed by the Supreme Court in the case of V. Senthil Balaji Vs. State. He added that Kejriwal was noncooperative and evasive of important information against him.
Raju enumerated two grounds seeking extension of remand: first, the considerable influence of Kejriwal, which, if released, may endanger the possibility of tampering with evidence or influencing witnesses, and second, the intrinsic nature of economic offenses, which requires full investigation to uncover all the illicit gains and persons involved.
He was arrested by the ED on March 21 after a marathon questioning at his Delhi residence. It slapped this charge against him by describing Kejriwal as the main conspirator and key figure in the alleged excise scam, alleged to conspire with other ministers of the Delhi government, AAP officials, and many other people.
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