Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has filed his response to the Enforcement Directorate’s affidavit in the Supreme Court and said his arrest is a classic case of how the ruling party-led central government has misused the ED and the PMLA to crush its biggest political opponent — the Aam Aadmi Party and its leaders. “During an election cycle when political activity is at its highest, the petitioner’s (Kejriwal) illegal arrest has caused grave prejudice to the petitioner’s political party and will provide the ruling party at the Centre an unjust upper hand in the ongoing elections,” Kejriwal’s rejoinder read.
A level-playing field — which is a pre-requisite for ‘free and fair elections’ — has clearly been compromised with the illegal arrest of the petitioner,” Kejriwal said in his reply, as quoted by LiveLaw.
There has been no proof or material to show that AAP received funds or advanced kickbacks from the South group — let alone utilising them in the Goa election campaign, the chief minister said adding that not a single rupee was traced back to the AAP and ED’s allegations have no tangible evidence.
The ED in its affidavit to the Supreme Court said that Kejriwal through his conduct led the investigating officer to believe satisfactorily that he was guilty of money laundering. Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in a money-laundering case linked to Delhi’s liquor policy. Kejriwal has not got any legal relief so far in the case.
The Delhi high court dismissed Kejriwal’s plea challenging the arrest and said Kejriwal’s arrest can’t be deemed illegal as there was no contravention of the law. Kejriwal approached the Supreme Court against the high court order. The top court, on April 15, sought a response from the ED on Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest.
“Even on the date of the search during his interrogation, while recording his statement under Section 17 of the PMLA, he was avoiding answering questions by being evasive and totally non-co-operative even with respect to simple non-incriminating questions,” the ED said.
