New Delhi

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday scheduled May 8 for hearing the Enforcement Directorate’s challenge to the bail granted to former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy-linked money laundering case.

Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma directed that the complete trial court records be summoned ahead of the hearing.

When the matter was briefly taken up, Kejriwal’s counsel requested that it be heard later in the day, citing the unavailability of the senior advocate. The court declined the request, observing that it was already past 3 pm, and decided to list the case on a later date.

“Passover is not possible,” the judge remarked, before fixing May 8 for the next hearing.

Earlier, on June 20, 2024, a trial court had granted bail to Kejriwal on a personal bond of ₹1 lakh. However, the Delhi High Court later stayed that order while considering the ED’s appeal.

Subsequently, on July 12, 2024, the Supreme Court granted Kejriwal interim bail in the money laundering case and referred three key questions related to the “need and necessity of arrest” under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to a larger bench.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21, 2024, and later by the Central Bureau of Investigation on June 26, 2024, in connection with the money laundering and corruption cases linked to Delhi’s now-scrapped excise policy.

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The excise policy was withdrawn in 2022 after the Delhi Lieutenant Governor ordered a CBI inquiry into alleged irregularities in its formulation and implementation. Both the CBI and the ED have alleged that policy changes resulted in undue benefits to certain licence holders.