Excise Policy: Delhi Court Extends Judicial Custody Of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, K Kavitha Till May 07 In ED Case

A Delhi Court on Tuesday extended till May 07 the judicial custody of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and BRS leader K Kavitha in the money laundering case connected to the liquor policy scam.

Special judge Kaveri Baweja of Rouse Avenue Courts directed the Tihar jail authorities to produce both Kejriwal and Kavitha through virtual conferencing (VC) on May 07 at 2 PM.

Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the night of March 21.

On April 10, the Delhi High Court dismissed Kejriwal's plea challenging his arrest, observing that ED was able to place enough material, statements of approvers and AAP's own candidate stating that Kejriwal was given money for Goa elections.

The Delhi Chief Minister has challenged the said order of the Delhi High Court bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma before the Top Court. The Supreme Court has issues notice on the plea but refused to grant any interim relief.

Kavitha was arrested on the evening of March 15 by the ED. She was later arrested by CBI while she was in judicial custody in the money laundering case.

The BRS leader has been denied interim bail in ED case. Her regular bail pleas in both cases are pending adjudication before the trial court.

AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh are also accused in the ED case. While Sisodia continues to remain in jail, Singh was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court pursuant to a concession given by the ED.

ED has alleged that Arvind Kejriwal is the "kingpin" of Delhi excise scam and is directly involved in the use of proceeds of crime accounting to over Rs. 100 crores.

It is ED's case that the excise policy was implemented as part of a conspiracy to give wholesale business profit of 12 percent to certain private companies, although such a stipulation was not mentioned in the minutes of meetings of Group of Ministers (GoM).

The Central agency has also claimed that there was a conspiracy that was coordinated by Vijay Nair and other individuals along with South Group to give extraordinary profit margins to wholesalers.

Nair was acting on behalf of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, according to the agency.