In a big relief to the Delhi Chief Minister, Supreme Court on Friday granted interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal in a money laundering case in connection with the now-scrapped excise policy.
While granting bail in excise policy case filed by ED, the bench said that Kejriwal has suffered incarceration for over 90 days.
However, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo will not walk out of jail as he is still in the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He was arrested by the CBI on June 25.
Kejriwal had moved the apex court challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta has referred the plea challenging ED arrest to a larger bench, Live Law reported.
The larger bench to examine the question whether the need or necessity of arrest must be read as a condition into Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Kejriwal was arrested by the probe agency ED on March 21, after the Delhi High Court refused to grant him interim protection. He remained in custody thereafter, until the Supreme Court granted him benefit of interim release (to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections) on May 10. The same expired on June 2.
Since then, the Delhi Chief Minister has been behind bars in Tihar Jail.
Earlier, the Delhi CM had approached the Delhi HC challenging ED’s arrest. However, his plea was dismissed on April 9. Aggrieved by the same, he moved the top court, which issued notice on his plea on April 15.