SC, PMLA court to hear cases against CM Kejriwal & senior leaders

New Delhi, April 15 (IANS) Cases against Aam Aadmi Party leaders, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, are scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court and a Delhi PMLA court, making Monday the most eventful day for the AAP.

AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Amanatullah Khan, who are embroiled in money laundering issues related to the excise policy and irregularities in the Delhi Waqf Board recruitment, are also among the leaders.

The apex court will hear incarcerated Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea against his arrest and remand by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the excise policy case.

A division bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta is slated to take up the matter for hearing.

CM Kejriwal had moved the top court after the Delhi High Court on April 9 dismissed his petition challenging his arrest and the trial court order remanding him to the federal anti-money laundering agency's custody.

The Supreme Court is also slated to consider the appeal by Amanatullah Khan, an AAP MLA, who was denied anticipatory bail in a money laundering case by the Delhi High Court.

The case concerns the purported irregularities in the recruiting process of the Delhi Waqf Board while Khan was chairperson.

In the PMLA court here, CM Kejriwal will be produced before Special Judge Kaveri Baweja on the expiry of his 14-day judicial custody. He was sent to jail after the ED sought his judicial custody, although reserving its right to request the AAP supremo's further ED custody in the future.

The ED arrested CM Kejriwal on March 21 after questioning him for over two hours at his official residence in Delhi.

The ED has termed CM Kejriwal the "kingpin and the key conspirator" of the alleged excise scam in collusion with other ministers of the Delhi government, AAP leaders, and other persons.

Judge Baweja will also be hearing the bail application of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the excise policy-related money laundering case.

Sisodia's role is being probed by both ED and CBI.

In the excise policy case, Judge Baweja on Monday, sent Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K. Kavitha to judicial custody till April 23, in the money laundering case being probed by the CBI.

Kavitha, who is the daughter of former Chief Minister of Telangana, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, was arrested from the Tihar Jail on April 11 by the CBI. Her judicial custody in ED's case will also end on April 23.