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Will Kejriwal walk out of jail? Delhi HC’s verdict on his bail likely on Tuesday

HC had stayed the bail order issued by the trial court

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal | PTI

The Delhi High Court is likely to pronounce its verdict on Tuesday on a petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate challenging the bail granted to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the trial court in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam.

The high court had on Friday put an interim stay to the trial court order and reserved its verdict for 2-3 days as it wanted to go through the entire records.

The ED on Monday filed its written submissions before the high court opposing any relief to the Aam Aadmi Party leader. 

“The impugned order passed by trial court deserves to be stayed and set aside as a vacation judge has returned perverse findings in almost every paragraph of its order on both the facts and the law after admittedly not examining the material placed on record by the prosecution,” the agency told the court.

The ED further claimed that the vacation judge had not considered the new material collected against Kejriwal after 2023.

Earlier, during the hearing at the trial court, the ED sought to link Kejriwal to the alleged proceeds of crime and co-accused, and the defence that claimed the prosecution has no evidence to nail the chief minister.

The agency told the court that Kejriwal stayed at hotel Grand Hyatt in Goa on on November 7, 2021 during the assembly poll campaign and the bill was paid by Chanpreet Singh, who is alleged to have managed the AAP funds in the coastal state.

The court, however, dismissed ED’s arguments and granted interim bail to the chief minister, which was later stayed by the high court.

Kejriwal has already moved the Supreme Court challenging the high court order. The top court, however, refused to grant immediate relief to the chief minister and posted the matter for hearing on June 26.

A vacation bench of Justices Manoj Misra and S.V.N. Bhatti said it would like to wait for the pronouncement of the high court order on the issue.

Kejriwal, who was arrested on March 21, is currently in judicial custody.

On May 10, the Supreme Court had granted him bail to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. He surrendered in Tihar jail on June 2 after his bail period ended.