Arvind Kejriwal moves Supreme Court against interim stay on bail

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal has moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court's decision to grant interim stay on his bail in the money laundering case stemming from the now scrapped Delhi excise policy..Kejriwal's lawyers told Bar & Bench that they will seek urgent hearing of the matter on Monday. Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain of High Court had ordered an interim stay on Friday on the trial court order granting bail to Kejriwal.The trial court had on Thursday granted bail to Kejriwal and ordered his release subject to bail bond of ₹1 lakh.Special Judge Niyay Bindu of the Rouse Avenue Court said that ED has failed to give any direct evidence linking Kejriwal to the proceeds of the crime and has also failed to show that another accused, Vijay Nair, was acting on Kejriwal's behalf.The special judge had also said that the ED was acting with bias against Kejriwal.The ED had immediately moved the Delhi High Court and secured an urgent hearing in the matter. It sought a stay on the bail order.The matter was heard by the High Court which reserved his order on the prayer for stay.However, in the meantime, the High Court said that there shall be an interim stay on the bail order until the final order on prayer for stay is pronounced."I am reserving the order for two to three days. Till pronouncement of the order, the operation of the trial court order is stayed," the High Court said.This has led to the appeal before the top court. .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.Kejriwal has denied the allegations and has accused the ED of running an extortion racket.Other AAP leaders arrested in the same case include former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia and Member of Parliament Sanjay Singh.Singh is currently out on bail though Sisodia continue to languish in jail.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.Subsequently, his regular bail plea on merits was allowed by the trial court prompting the ED to approach the High Court.The High Court ordered an interim stay on the trial court order leading to the present appeal before the apex court..Read more about hearing before Delhi High Court here.