SC to hear Arvind Kejriwal's plea today, wife Sunita denied permission to meet him in jail. Details here

The Supreme Court on Monday will hear Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea challenging his arrest in a money laundering case related to the Delhi liquor policy scam. Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in connection with the alleged excise policy scam. He is in judicial custody till May 7 and continues to run the Delhi government from jail. 

While responding to an affidavit filed by the Enforcement Directorate, Kejriwal told the apex court that his arrest in connection with the liquor policy case was a classic case of the BJP-led Centre misusing the central probe agency and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to crush its "biggest political opponent."

Kejriwal's counsel said Kejriwal's "illegal" arrest during the election season has led to "grave prejudice" to his political party and will provide the BJP an "unjust upper hand" in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections 2024.

Besides this, Arvind Kejriwal also emphasised the circumstances surrounding his arrest, highlighting the ED detained a sitting CM and the national convenor of 1 of the country's 6 national parties. He also argued that his arrest took place merely 5 days after the dates for 7 phases of the general elections were declared and the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) was implemented. 

The Enforcement Directorate in its affidavit to the Supreme Court said that Kejriwal's arrest was imperative due to significant tampering of evidence, including destruction of roughly 170 mobile phones during the period of the alleged excise policy scam. 

Meanwhile, the Tihar jail administration denied permission for his wife Sunita Kejriwal to meet him on April 29, according to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The party said that the jail administration did not cite any reasons for denying the permission. 

"Sunita Kejriwal was supposed to meet him tomorrow (Monday) but the Tihar administration has denied permission. The jail administration has not cited any reason for denying the permission," sources within the AAP were quoted as saying by news agency PTI. 

Besides this, the AAP targeted the Modi government and Tihar jail administration in a post on X (formerly Twitter). "At the behest of the Modi government, the Tihar jail administration cancelled Sunita Kejriwal's meeting with her husband Arvind Kejriwal. The Modi government is crossing all limits of inhumanity," the party said in a post in Hindi. 

It added: "An elected chief minister is being treated like a terrorist. The Modi government should tell the people of the country as to why it is not allowing Sunita Kejriwal ji to meet her husband Arvind Kejriwal ji?"

As per the jail manual, 2 people can meet a prisoner at a time and maximum four in a week. Delhi minister Atishi is slated to meet Kejriwal on Monday whereas Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann will meet the jailed AAP national convenor on Tuesday. 

(With PTI inputs)