New Delhi, August 12 (HS): In a significant development in the ongoing Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to submit copies of the requisite prosecution sanction obtained for initiating proceedings against former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
Justice Ravindra Dudeja, presiding over the matter, scheduled the next hearing for November 12, making it clear that the court wishes to examine the sanction documents before proceeding further.
The directive came while hearing petitions filed by Kejriwal and Sisodia challenging the trial court’s decision to take cognizance of the ED’s chargesheet against them. Lawyers N. Hariharan (for Kejriwal) and Vikram Chaudhri (for Sisodia) argued that the ED had failed to obtain mandatory sanction to prosecute, particularly in Sisodia’s case, as required under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for public servants. They maintained that any cognizance taken without such approval is legally unsustainable, and urged the High Court to quash the trial court’s order.
The case has a long legal trail. Sisodia was first arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023, and subsequently by the ED on March 9, 2023 after questioning inside Tihar Jail. Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21, 2024, granted interim bail by the Supreme Court on May 10, 2024, and surrendered on June 2. Days later, on June 26, 2024, the CBI took him into custody in a related case.
The ED’s sixth supplementary chargesheet, filed on May 10, 2024, named BRS leader K. Kavitha, Chanpreet Singh, Damodar Sharma, Prince Kumar, and Arvind Singh among the accused. The trial court took cognizance of it on May 29, 2024.
Several high-profile bail orders have since been passed, including Supreme Court bail for Kavitha on August 27, 2024, and regular bail for Kejriwal in the CBI case on September 13, 2024 (after earlier interim relief in July 2024 in the ED case).
With the High Court now seeking to check the legality of the prosecution sanction, the November hearing is expected to be pivotal in determining whether the trial court’s cognizance against the two AAP leaders will stand or face a judicial reset.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
