Supreme Court grants interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal till June 1

New Delhi [India]: Aam Admi Party National Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal received a big relief from the Supreme Court, which on Friday granted him interim bail till June 1 in the excise policy case.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Dutta granted the Delhi Chief Minister interim bail in the money laundering case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.

The bench on Wednesday told Enforcement Directorate counsel Additional Solicitor General SV Raju that it may pass the order on interim relief to Kejriwal today.

Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 in connection with a money laundering probe relating to alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22.

On Tuesday, the bench hinted at granting interim bail to Kejriwal to enable him to campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. However, it had also said that if interim bail were granted, Kejriwal would not be allowed to discharge any official duties as Chief Minister.

The Enforcement Directorate had opposed his bail in the top court, which was hearing arguments on interim bail to Kejriwal. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, also representing ED, told the bench at an earlier hearing that there can't be any deviation only because Kejriwal is Chief Minister and asked if the Supreme Court is carving out exceptions for politicians.

(ANI)