Delhi Excise Policy Case: HC Likely To Announce Verdict on Arvind Kejriwal’s bail today

The Delhi High Court is expected to announce its decision on Tuesday regarding the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) request to stay the trial court’s bail order for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case related to the alleged excise scam. The verdict is scheduled for 2:30 pm. A vacation bench led by Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain had reserved the decision on June 21 after the ED contested the trial court’s ruling, which has been temporarily suspended pending the high court’s ruling.

On Monday, the ED opposed Kejriwal’s bail plea in the liquor policy case, calling the trial court’s order “illegal and perverse.” In a written response to the Delhi High Court, Kejriwal argued that discretionary bail orders cannot be overturned “merely on perceptions and fanciful imagination of the prosecution.” Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain’s vacation bench is set to deliver its verdict on the ED’s plea to stay the bail order at 2:30 pm on Tuesday.

The court had reserved its order on June 21 regarding the ED’s plea for a stay on the bail order. In its written submission to the high court, the ED claimed that the trial court, which granted Kejriwal bail on June 20, failed to consider any relevant material demonstrating the “neck-deep involvement” of the AAP chief in the money laundering case. The ED asserted that the AAP was the primary beneficiary of the proceeds from the alleged excise policy “scam” and accused the judge of making a “fatal error” by ignoring Kejriwal’s vicarious liability under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

In its arguments to the Delhi High Court on Monday, the ED challenged the relief granted to Kejriwal, describing the trial court’s decision as illegal and perverse. The agency urged the high court to stay and overturn the trial court’s order, stating, “The impugned order passed by the trial court deserves to be stayed and set aside as the vacation judge has returned perverse findings in almost every paragraph of its order on both facts and law after admittedly not examining the material placed on record by the prosecution.” The ED also highlighted that the vacation judge overlooked new evidence against Kejriwal collected after 2023, including statements from 13 Angariyas, Goa AAP workers, and AAP office bearers.