Three months after his arrest in a money laundering case linked to the Delhi excise policy, AAP leader and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was granted bail by a Delhi court on Thursday. The Enforcement Directorate’s plea to delay the bail order by 48 hours was rejected by Special Judge Niyay Bindu.
Kejriwal, who had been in custody at Tihar Jail since his arrest on March 21, was granted interim bail last month to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections and surrendered again on June 2. He had filed two bail applications—one for interim bail, which was rejected on June 5, and another for regular bail.
During the court hearing, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the ED, opposed the bail, citing direct evidence that funds for AAP’s Goa Assembly election campaign were transferred through hawala channels. Raju claimed that Chanpreet Singh, one of the accused, had allegedly received Rs 45 crore used for the campaign and had frequent communications with Vinod Chauhan, another co-accused with close ties to Kejriwal.
He also contended that Kejriwal was uncooperative, refusing to provide his phone passwords because, according to him, “the skeletons will come out of his closet” if he did so.
Raju stated, “You (Kejriwal) may not have committed the offence directly, but as the person responsible for the affairs of the AAP, if the AAP is guilty of an offence, then you are guilty as well. This is in accordance with Section 70 of the PMLA.” Both the AAP and Kejriwal were named as accused in a recent chargesheet.
