THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
New Delhi, March 16: The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) of Rouse Avenue Court granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday, preventing his arrest for his failure to attend summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over the money laundering case related to the Delhi liquor policy.
Kejriwal made a physical appearance in front of the court during the hearing.
ACMM Divya Malhotra provided bail to Kejriwal and highlighted that Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code allows for bail. She instructed him to pay Rs 15,000 in each of the complaint cases.
Senior Advocate Ramesh Gupta, together with Advocate Rajiv Mohan, Mohd Irshad, Mudit Jain, and Samprikta Ghosal, appeared for Arvind Kejriwal, and Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, Zoheb Hossain, and Simon Benjamin, represented the ED.
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Kejriwal earlier filed appeal in Sessions Court citing persistent notices by ED
It was submitted on Thursday that Kejriwal responded to every notice that the ED had sent out, but that the Directorate of Enforcement had persisted in sending out cyclostyle notices under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) even though he had learned the reasons why he hadn’t shown up in person.
On Thursday, the Delhi Chief Minister filed an appeal with the Sessions Court contesting the summons issued by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate regarding complaints from the Enforcement Directorate. These complaints were related to his non-compliance with summons issued by the central probe agency in the Delhi liquor policy case.
While contesting the summons in the Sessions Court, Kejriwal asserted that he had not deliberately disobeyed the summons.
Kejriwal submitted a plea to the Sessions Court, seeking an order to pause the adjudication process before an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate.
Kejriwal skipped eight ED summons, agreed for virtual appearance after March 12
Following the eighth summons from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), which required Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to appear before them on March 4, the Aam Aadmi Party leader responded by labelling the summon as “illegal”. Nevertheless, he consented to a virtual appearance before the agency on any date post March 12.
Kejriwal has avoided and skipped attending eight summons issued by the ED on March 4, February 26, February 19, February 2, January 18, January 3, November 2, and December 22, deeming them as illegal and politically motivated.
When Kejriwal skipped the seventh ED summons the AAP stated that the case was “pending in court” and that a hearing was scheduled for March 16. It asked the Enforcement Directorate not to issue more summonses right now, but to wait for the court’s ruling.