Enforcement Directorate 'violated human rights': Arvind Kejriwal's plea

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's petition challenging his arrest on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, said the probe agency "violated his fundamental and human rights". The Delhi High Court is currently hearing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo's plea which also said that his arrest and subsequent remand to ED custody was "illegal".

The AAP national convenor moved the High Court with the petition last week, but a request for an urgent hearing was denied as the court said it would resume proceedings on March 27 (Wednesday) after Holi.

During the hearing today, the High Court warned the AAP's legal cell over its protest call at the three district courts in Delhi against Kejriwal's arrest on Wednesday, saying if they went ahead, then it would be "at their own peril".

Here's what the Chief Minister's petition said:

• The Enforcement Directorate at the time of Kejriwal's arrest failed to establish that the petitioner is guilty of committing activities stipulated under Section 3, i.e., be it one of concealment, possession, acquisition, use of proceeds of crime as much as projecting it as untainted property or claiming it to be so.
• The fact that the petitioner was arrested without any interrogation or questioning clearly shows that the present proceedings of arrest is pre-meditated and nothing but an act of political vendetta to skew the balance and level-playing field in the General Election, 2024.
• Kejriwal has sought immediate release from prison and quashing of a trial court's remand order that sent him to ED custody till March 28 "for his detailed and sustained interrogation".

DELHI EXCISE POLICY CASE

The case pertains to the alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.

In the chargesheets filed by the Enforcement Directorate, the Delhi Chief Minister's name has been mentioned multiple times in connection to the case.

AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, party communications in-charge Vijay Nair and some liquor businessmen have been arrested so far.

The probe agency had issued Kejriwal multiple summonses to appear in front of it, but he skipped them all.