SC notice to ED on Arvind Kejriwal's plea against arrest in money laundering case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Enforcement Directorate by April 24 on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest in a money-laundering case stemming from the alleged excise policy scam.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta issued notice to the ED on Kejriwal’s plea challenging the Delhi High Court’s April 9 order that had upheld his arrest in the case.

The bench said the matter would be heard in the week commencing April 29.

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, told the bench that he wanted to show some facts which would “shock” the conscience of the court.

Terming it a “very unusual matter”, not because Kejriwal is a chief minister, Singhvi questioned the timing of his arrest after model code of conduct for the general elections had come into force.

He said a lot of “selective leaks all over the place” was giving everybody a wrong impression.

“I am not aware of selective leaks,” Justice Khanna said, adding, “Let a notice be issued.”

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, who represented the ED, said the probe agency will file its reply to the petition.

“I am now asking for an extremely short date of Friday for a reason,” Singhvi said, underlining the need for the matter to be heard early.