Arvind Kejriwal is in judicial custody; ED has no role in his plea for relaxations in jail: Delhi court

A Delhi court on Friday told the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that it cannot object to Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal's requests related to his medical checkup in the Tihar jail, where he is currently in judicial custody in the Delhi excise policy case..Vacation Judge Mukesh Kumar asked the Jail Superintendent of Tihar Jail to respond to Kejriwal's application for allowing his wife to join his medical checkup via video conferencing. The CM has also prayed that he be allowed to provide his inputs regarding his health condition to the medical board.After the ED counsel Zoheb Hossain told the Court that the agency requires some time to respond to the CM's application, the Court said,"Accused is in judicial custody, not ED (custody). If he wants any relief, you have no role in this."Hossain insisted that the Court calls for a report from the jail so that the prison authorities can inform it about any issues in providing the VC access to Kejriwal's wife.However, the Court reiterated that the ED has no role as far as the requests related to his medical checkup are concerned."Hum jail se reply manga lenge par aapka to koi role hai nahi isme (We will call a reply from the jail but you have no role in this)," the Court remarked..ED counsel responded that earlier there was certain concerns with regard to the diet Kejriwal was taking inside the jail and a medical board had to be constituted. "Till now this request was not made by them. So, heavens won't fall if we are allowed to file a short reply. We are a vitally interested party in this because of proviso to Section 45 PMLA," Hossain submitted, while referring to the stringent conditions of bail in money laundering cases.The Court then proceeded to call for a report from the jail authorities on Kejriwal's application, which will be heard again on Saturday..Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 on allegations that he was part of a conspiracy to intentionally leave loopholes in the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy for 2021-22, to benefit certain liquor sellers.ED has alleged that kickbacks received from liquor sellers were used to fund the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) electoral campaign in Goa and Kejriwal being the National Convenor of the party is both personally and vicariously liable for the offence of money laundering.Other AAP leaders arrested in the same case include former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia and Member of Parliament Sanjay Singh (out on bail)..Supreme Court in May had granted interim bail to Kejriwal to allow him campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. He returned to jail on June 2 after the interim bail period allowed by the top court came to an end.He had also filed an application seeking interim bail for seven days on medical grounds. However, the same was rejected by trial court on June 5.His plea for regular bail will be heard on June 19.