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After the petition was rejected in the High Court, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal approached the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court refused to hear Kejriwal's petition immediately. Which is being considered a big blow for Kejriwal. In his petition, Kejriwal has argued that if he is not released immediately to contest the next elections, it will set a wrong tradition of arresting opposition leaders. Saying this, he demanded immediate hearing on the application.
He said that this petition is being filed on emergency basis. Because in the midst of elections, ED has illegally arrested the current Chief Minister of Delhi. The petition said that Kejriwal was arrested on the basis of statements given by the co-accused. Who later became a government witness. It has been argued that such statements and evidence were with the ED for the last 9 months and yet he was arrested illegally in the midst of the Lok Sabha elections.
Question on ED process
Kejriwal has also raised questions on the process of ED in his petition. He alleged that the ED had only allowed itself to be used in the run-up to the elections to attack the freedom of political opponents and hurt their reputation and self-respect. The petition said that if Kejriwal is not released immediately to contest the next elections, it will set a precedent for the ruling party to arrest leaders of opposition parties before the elections, which will destroy the basic principle of our Constitution.
What did you say about the High Court's decision?
Delhi High Court said in its decision that questions cannot be raised on the statements of witnesses. Regarding which Kejriwal has argued in the Supreme Court that the High Court failed to understand that the statements recorded under Section 164 of CrPC cannot be considered as absolute truth and the court can doubt it. These statements can never be used as concrete evidence of the truth of the facts, but can be used to refute and corroborate the testimony.
witness statements
According to Kejriwal's petition, the High Court also failed to understand that the statements of co-accused, who have turned government witnesses, cannot be considered as the starting point for ascertaining the guilt of an individual. ED is recording such statements under pressure. The petition claimed that the High Court could not even understand that the ED had recorded such a statement by luring bail and acquittal. Therefore it cannot be trusted.
The petition filed in the Supreme Court has argued that the statements on the basis of which the arrests were made were recorded between December 7, 2022 and July 27, 2023 and no evidence was subsequently found against Kejriwal. He has claimed that no statement was recorded to corroborate the old statements before his arrest on March 21, 2024, even though it is required to do so under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Kejriwal's arrest after the announcement of general election dates i.e. March 21, 2024 is clearly motivated by external considerations.
Demanding that the arrest be declared illegal
The petition said that the statements of C Arvind, Magunta Reddy and Sarath Reddy were relied upon for the arrest of Kejriwal. But these statements do not remotely indicate that Kejriwal has done any commission work under Section 3 of PMLA. It has been claimed that these statements do not constitute any crime against Kejriwal. He has also claimed that the statements of Buchi Babu and Raghav Magunta are completely false as they were not present in any meeting with Kejriwal. Furthermore, Raghava Magunta's statements attempt to include incidents which his daughter Magunta Reddy has not talked about. The petition demands Kejriwal's release and declaring his arrest illegal under Section 19 of PMLA.
