Arvind Kejriwal, Ok Kavitha To Keep In Jail, Custody Prolonged By 14 Days
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal (File).
New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Telangana lawmaker Ok Kavitha – opposition politicians arrested final month – weeks earlier than the beginning of the Lok Sabha election – within the alleged liquor coverage rip-off – have been despatched to prolonged judicial custody for 14 days. The Aam Aadmi Celebration boss and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi chief – each in Delhi’s Tihar Jail – might be produced in court docket subsequent on Might 7.
The Delhi Chief Minister has a plea pending within the Supreme Courtroom, through which he has challenged his arrest March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate on cash laundering costs. The court docket heard the matter on April 15, however denied Mr Kejriwal rapid reduction pending a reply from the federal company.
Days earlier the Delhi Excessive Courtroom rejected the identical plea, noting the ED had filed sufficient materials to again its declare – that Mr Kejriwal was allegedly concerned in forming the now-scrapped coverage and demanding bribes of Rs 100 crore used to fund the AAP’s Punjab and Goa election campaigns.
In a associated matter earlier at this time, Mr Kejriwal – a Sort 2 diabetes affected person – obtained his first shot of insulin in (reportedly) 32 days. The injection was administered after his blood sugar ranges spiked to an alarmingly excessive 320 mg/dl. Mr Kejriwal had moved the court docket final week and this asking for insulin injections, however the plea had been opposed by the ED, which claimed the Chief Minister had intentionally eaten excessive sugar meals objects to raise glucose ranges and apply for medical bail.
On Monday a Delhi court docket directed a panel of specialists from the centre-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences to evaluate the Chief Minister’s situation and set up if insulin is, the truth is, wanted.
The AAP and Mr Kejriwal have denied all costs, and have counter-accused the Bharatiya Janata Celebration of “political vendetta” in opposition to a rival, and a member of the Congress-led INDIA opposition bloc, earlier than the final election. The AAP and the opposition have repeatedly claimed federal investigation companies – such because the Enforcement Directorate – goal opposition leaders on directions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities. The centre has denied this declare.
Ms Kavitha – the daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister Ok Chandrasekhar Rao – will be taught on Might 2 the result of a bail plea in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Courtroom. Particular Choose Kaveri Bawaja on Monday reserved her order. The plea is in opposition to Ms Kavitha’s arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which took her into custody whereas she was nonetheless in judicial custody within the ED’s case.
The case in opposition to the BRS chief is that she was a part of the ‘South group’ – a cartel of businesspersons who paid an alleged Rs 600 crore in bribes to the AAP for allotment of liquor licences.
Ms Kavitha has additionally denied the fees and, like Mr Kejriwal, has questioned the timing of ED, CBI motion in opposition to her, coming because it did weeks and days earlier than the final election.
The ED has additionally arrested two different AAP leaders on this case – former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who was arrested in February final yr and has been in jail since, and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, who was arrested in October and obtained bail earlier this month.
Whereas granting bail to Mr Singh, the Supreme Courtroom noticed investigating companies had failed, to date, to recuperate any of the alleged bribe cash. “Nothing has been recovered… there is no such thing as a hint (of cash allegedly obtained by AAP as bribes from the ‘South group’)…” the court docket remarked.
The identical level has been made by the AAP and Ms Kavitha’s BRS colleagues.
