Supreme Court junks ED’s plea on Arvind Kejriwal’s speech: ‘Won’t go into that’

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain the Enforcement Directorate’s plea seeking action against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over his campaign speeches.

The ED said Kejriwal’s assertion that he would “not have to go back to jail” if people voted for the INDIA bloc was a “slap on the face of the system”. The ED has objected to Kejriwal’s remarks that he would be back from Tihar Jail on June 5 if the INDIA bloc came to power after the Lok Sabha election results were announced on June 4.

“Arvind Kejriwal has said that if people vote for the AAP, then he doesn’t have to go to jail on June 2. How can Arvind Kejriwal say this?” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court.

To this, Justice Sanjiv Khanna said, “We welcome criticism of the verdict. We will not go into that. Our order is clear when he (Kejriwal) has to surrender. It is the order of the apex court and the rule of law shall be governed by this. We did not make an exception for anybody.”

Arvind Kejriwal, who was arrested in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court last week to campaign in the Lok Sabha elections. The AAP chief will have to surrender and go back to jail on June 2.

The top court was hearing a plea by the Delhi Chief Minister challenging his arrest in the case by the ED.

During his poll rallies in Delhi and Haryana, Kejriwal had played the emotional card, recalling how he was arrested just before the Lok Sabha polls and how he was denied insulin doses for his blood sugar in Tihar Jail.

“I have to go back to jail on June 2. I will be watching the results on June 4 from the jail. If you work hard and make the INDIA bloc win, I will come back on June 5,” Kejriwal has been saying at his rallies.