Delhi High Court has given time to ED to file reply on the petition of former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, accused in the money laundering case related to Delhi Excise Scam, challenging the order of taking cognizance of the charge sheet filed by ED against them. Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri’s bench ordered the next hearing of the case on 5 February. While hearing the case, notice has been issued to ED.
During the hearing, lawyer N Hariharan appearing on behalf of Kejriwal and lawyer Vikram Chaudhary appearing on behalf of Sisodia had said that ED had not taken necessary permission to run prosecution against Sisodia. Despite that, the trial court has committed a mistake by taking cognizance of the charge sheet.
The petition states that under the Code of Criminal Procedure, cognizance cannot be taken without permission to prosecute a public servant. In such a situation, taking cognizance of the charge sheet by the trial court is not legal, so that order should be repealed. It is noteworthy that on August 9, the Supreme Court granted bail to Sisodia. The ED arrested Sisodia from Tihar Jail after interrogation on 9 March 2023 in this case. Sisodia was earlier arrested by the CBI on 26 February 2023.
The ED arrested Kejriwal on 21 March after interrogation. On May 10, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal till June 01, after which Kejriwal surrendered on June 2. Kejriwal was arrested by the CBI on 26 June. On May 10, the ED filed the sixth supplementary charge sheet in which BRS leader Kavita, Chanpreet Singh, Damodar Sharma, Prince Kumar, Arvind Singh have been made accused. The court took cognizance of the sixth supplementary charge sheet on May 29.
Hindusthan Samachar
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