Representing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi High Court, Senior Advocate Abhishek Singhvi today sharply criticized the Enforcement Directorate’s case in the liquor policy matter, where three senior leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are presently incarcerated.
The session took a heated turn as several arguments were exchanged regarding the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the time of arrest of the sitting chief minister which comes amidst the time of elections.
Mr Singhvi said “A sitting chief minister is arrested on the cusp of election. The heart of democracy is a level playing field. It means free and fair elections. If you do anything to make the level-playing field uneven, then you are impinging on the basic structure. This arrest on the cusp of election is intended to disable the person from campaigning and give a body blow to the party, and third, you end up scoring some points before even the first vote is cast,”
On the issue of money laundering senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi exclaims “There are three phrases in Section 19: “material in possession”, “reasons to believe” and “guilty”. “These are vital conditions for arrest. Before any arrest, these conditions must be satisfied on the files and the papers. This threshold has been put deliberately high because of the corresponding provisions under Section 45 of PMLA, which puts the threshold for bail very high. So, there is counterbalancing.”
He mentioned that these phrases underscore the fundamental aspect of clearly illustrating the need for arrest. “You have the power to arrest, but it must be conditioned and satisfied by the high conditions under Section 19,” he said. “The question is what was the necessity to arrest me today.”
The ED had also accused the party of non-cooperation with its actions to which Mr Singhvi Replied “Can you say I will arrest you because I am exercising my right against self-incrimination? This will hit Articles 20 and 21 of the Constitution on the head. Suppose I say I don’t know or that I have a very poor memory. Which law says I am arresting you because you are not incriminating yourself”. He stated that the Enforcement Directorate’s request for custodial interrogation was grounded in the lack of cooperation.
Several other arguments were discussed in the backdrop of the Chief Minister’s arrest in which the defence Mr Abhishek Singhvi had taken up a staunch stance against the order of ED. The defence accuses the authorities of an untimely arrest and a delayed dispute resolution that comes at the time of elections and deems it to hamper constitutional integrity.
