Have Evidence That Arvind Kejriwal's 7-Star Hotel Stay In Goa Was Partly Funded By An Accused : ED Tells Supreme Court

During the hearing of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's plea against ED arrest, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju yesterday (May 7) told the Supreme Court  that the agency has "evidence" against the AAP chief. The ASG further asserted that the ED was in no way concerned with the politics surrounding his arrest.

The matter was before a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, which expressed to Raju that Kejriwal was entitled to criticize the action of arrest right before the elections. It further remarked that Kejriwal can ask why ED did not put pin-pointed questions about him to the witnesses and delayed the arrest despite allegedly unearthing his involvement much before.

Raju explained that if the agency had put Kejriwal's name to witnesses during initial investigations, that would have been "obviously malafide". It was averred that investigation is the prerogative of the Investigating Officer - it takes time, as what witnesses say has to be confirmed, and illicit gains, etc. have to be unearthed.

Averting to the Goa elections (which are alleged to have been funded through the proceeds of crime generated from the alleged Delhi Liquor Policy scam), the ASG emphasized that the agency has "evidence" against Kejriwal. To quote,

"Now we have proof that the total expenditure of Arvind Kejriwal that he stayed during Goa elections was paid by this Chanpreet Singh...entries were not there in books of account. We have found that Arvind Kejriwal stayed in a 7-star grand hotel called Grand Hyatt in Goa during the Goa elections. And at that time, part of his bills were paid by the general administrative department of Delhi government, but part of it was paid by Chanpreet Singh. Chanpreet Singh is the same person who received cash and reflected in his bank accounts. That cash was paid partly for financing or for paying the bills of Arvind Kejriwal in a 7-star hotel in Goa during Goa elections. We have got documentary evidence to that effect."

Informing that Chanpreet Singh has also been arrested, the ASG further remarked, "it is not as if it is a politically motivated case. As far as ED is concerned, it is not concerned with politics. We are concerned with evidence. And we have evidence."

Courtroom Exchange

J Khanna: We take it at the bar what you have said, that there is no question asked about him. Only issue which would crop up is why did you not ask, and why were you delaying...why were you asking questions which were...why did it take so much time in interrogation and why were direct questions or the relevant questions not put at the [...] stage

Raju: Investigation is [...] of the investigating officer

J Khanna: Maybe, but other side is entitled to criticize that

Raju: If I start from day one...if I don't have any evidence, if I don't have any material and I start putting questions on Arvind Kejriwal, then it is obvious that it's malafide. It can't be. It takes time to understand. We wanted to know illegal gains of the policy, what type of conspiracy is there...how the conspiracy...it is put slowly...it can't be put overnight. How an investigation is to be done is prerogative of the investigating officer

During the hearing, the Court also hinted that it might consider granting interim bail to Kejriwal in view of the elections but subject to the condition that he should not discharge official functions.

The matter is likely to be listed next on Thursday, or next week.

For a detailed report on the hearing, click here.

Case Title: Arvind Kejriwal v. Directorate of Enforcement, SLP(Crl) 5154/2024