ED gets Centre's nod to prosecute Kejriwal, Sisodia in Delhi excise policy case
The Ministry of Home Affairs has given its approval to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to prosecute Delhi's former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia in connection with the money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam, officials said here on Wednesday.
Last month, Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena recommended the ED's request to prosecute Kejriwal to the Centre which had even enraged AAP, which termed Kejriwal's arrest by the CBI and ED "illegal" as they had not taken prior permission. Even on Wednesday, AAP called it an "unprecedented case in the country’s history" and accused the BJP of misusing the agencies.
"What we are witnessing is an unprecedented case in the country’s history where Arvind Kejriwal, the then sitting Chief Minister, and chief of a national party with two state governments was jailed without a sanction, only to be granted bail by courts," a senior party leader said.
He said the Apex Court had once remarked that the " the ED and CBI were being used ‘like caged parrots' and the PMLA court clearly had noted that there was no evidence against Kejriwal.
"It has now come to light that all of this was being done without a prosecution sanction. Two years after the case was filed in November 2022, the ED and CBI, acting on BJP's orders, illegally jailed Kejriwal, and have only now gotten a sanction to prosecute him," the party leader said.
Interestingly, the ED may now ask the court for framing of charges during the next hearing, which is likely scheduled for January 30, just a week ahead of the Delhi polls. In case charges are framed against Kejriwal, it may provide fresh ammo to the BJP in the last leg of electioneering.
The federal agency already filed a chargesheet against Kejriwal before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court here last year after arresting him in March. The ED called him the “kingpin and key conspirator” of the alleged Delhi excise policy “scam”.
Why no sanction earlier?
It all started on November 20 when Arvind Kejriwal approached the Delhi High Court seeking to quash a local court’s July 9 order taking cognisance of the 200-page chargesheet filed by the ED. He challenged the trial court's order on the grounds of lack of sanction to prosecute him and subsequently sought a pause on the trial court proceedings in the money laundering case.
The AAP leader's petition came in the wake of November 6 Supreme Court's ruling that the requirement for prior government sanction to prosecute public servants, as mandated under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), also applies to complaints involving money laundering cases.
The SC order came on the ED’s petition challenging the high court decision quashing an order of the trial court that had taken cognisance of the ED’s prosecution complaint on money laundering charges against the two senior bureaucrats of Andhra Pradesh - Bibhu Prasad Acharya and Adityanath Das.
The ED had contended that considering the object of the PMLA, the requirement of obtaining a sanction under Section 197(1) of CrPC will be inconsistent with Section 71 of the PMLA. Section 197 (1) says, “When any person who is or was a judge or magistrate or a public servant not removable from his office save by or with the sanction of the government, is accused of any offence alleged to have been committed by him while acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official duty, no court shall take cognisance of such offence except with the previous sanction.”
The objective of Section 197 (1) of the CrPC was to protect public servants from prosecution and it ensured they were not prosecuted for anything they did in the discharge of their duties. According to ED sources, before the SC's ruling it was not mandatory for them to take sanction for prosecution.
