NEW DELHI, Apr 27: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday told the Supreme Court that his “illegal arrest” in a money-laundering case stemming from the alleged excise policy scam constitutes an unprecedented assault on the tenets of democracy based on “free and fair elections” and “federalism”.
In a rejoinder to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) reply affidavit filed on his petition challenging his arrest in the case, Kejriwal said the mode, manner and timing of his arrest just before the Lok Sabha elections when the Model Code of Conduct had come into play, speaks volumes about the “arbitrariness” of the agency.
Kejriwal claimed it is a “classical case” of how the Centre has misused the ED and its wide powers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to “crush” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leaders.
Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel
“… It is submitted that the petitioner’s arrest constitutes an unprecedented assault on the tenets of democracy based on ‘free and fair elections’ and ‘federalism’, both of which form significant constituents of the basic structure of the Constitution,” the rejoinder said.
It claimed that ED illegally ‘picked up’ a sitting Chief Minister and the national convenor of one of the national Opposition parties, five days after the general elections were announced and the Model Code of Conduct came into force.
“During an election cycle when political activity is at its highest, the petitioner’s 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 said in his rejoinder.
“The present case is a classic case of how the ruling party led Central Government has misused the central agency- Enforcement Directorate and its wide powers under PMLA to crush its biggest political opponent -Aam Aadmi Party and its leaders,” the rejoinder said.
He said a level playing field, which is a pre-requisite for ‘free and fair elections’, has clearly been compromised with his illegal arrest.
It said the entire basis of Kejriwal’s arrest rests upon certain statements which are in the nature of “self-incriminating confessions” by alleged accomplices who have been given the immunity by way of pardon etc.
“Whether such statements could qualify as materials to reach the conclusion of guilt as envisaged under section 19 PMLA to justify the arrest of a sitting Chief Minister of NCT of Delhi or a national convenor of a national political party in India in the midst of General Elections,” it asked.
The rejoinder alleged the only objective of ED was to procure and obtain some statement against Kejriwal and as soon as the statement was taken, the mission of the probe agency was accomplished and thereafter, co-accused were neither arrested nor any further statements were taken. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
