Delhi court to resume hearing Kejriwal’s plea challenging summons on ED complaints on Friday

Therefore, he is not entitled to interim relief, he told the judge.The ASG said Kejriwal was making excuses which a common man is not allowed to make.He Kejriwal says he is a common man and he claims to represent common men.

A Delhi sessions court will resume hearing on Friday arguments on an application filed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging a lower court's summons to him on two complaints filed by the ED for evading its summonses in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise scam.

Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Syal on Thursday heard the arguments of the advocates representing Kejriwal and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the first order by which a magisterial court had on February 7 summoned the politician for February 17.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Divya Malhotra had, however, granted Kejriwal exemption from personal appearance before it on February 17 after he appeared through video conference and directed him to appear before it on March 16.

The sessions judge will hear on Friday the arguments on Kejriwal's plea against ACMM's second order dated March 7 by which Kejriwal was summoned for March 16.

During the hearing on Thursday, senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Kejriwal, urged the court to stay the magisterial court's first order.

"Please grant the stay on the order, or grant exemption from personal appearance before magisterial court. It is a summoning trial case. Maximum punishment is one month jail term/fine," he told the court.

"Matter is fixed for appearance on Saturday. I am seeking he (Kejriwal) be allowed to appear through counsel or the order be stayed," Kejriwal's lawyer pleaded before the judge.

Gupta told the judge he was limiting his request for exemption from personal appearance only to Saturday.

"I abandon my request for stay on the proceedings but am asking for his exemption from personal appearance. My earnest request is pass an interim order only to that extent," he said.

Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the ED, opposed the application, claiming that the accused had approached the court ''at the last moment".

"I object to this. The date was fixed long time back. He (Kejriwal) gave an assurance to the court that he will appear on March 16... Now, a month later, he comes and asks for exemption. He has suppressed this order. This is dishonest conduct on the face of it. Therefore, he is not entitled to interim relief," he told the judge.

The ASG said Kejriwal was making excuses which a common man is not allowed to make.

"He (Kejriwal) says he is a common man and he claims to represent common men. Can he be allowed to make excuses like these? He says he has to go to an inauguration, he has to go for Vipassana (meditation). Will a common man be allowed to make such excuses? And this person (Kejriwal) claims to represent Aam Aadmi (common man)," he told the judge.

"Today, on a hyper technical ground, stay on proceedings is being asked at the last moment. The entire modus operandi was to move this court at the last moment, put pressure on court. At the last moment they say grant me stay or heavens will fall. They move ex-parte, suppress material facts, and then try to seek an order," Raju told the judge.

The defence counsel opposed the ASG's submissions, asking what prejudice will be caused if he is granted exemption from personal appearance.

"Ye (ED) uska juloos nikalna chahte hain (They want to parade him). Even if I (Kejriwal) said that I will appear before the trial court on Saturday, what does that mean? If I am unable to appear, will you issue a warrant on that issue? When did I say that I am a big person," the chief minister's counsel retorted.

He said Kejriwal's personal appearance before the court will serve no purpose.

"If he appears, it serves no purpose. But if he is exempted, it serves a lot of purposes. It saves authorities from making arrangements... ASG is appearing before the court in a case where maximum punishment is one month jail term," he said.

The court adjourned the matter till tomorrow when it will hear arguments on the second appeal.

The latest complaint pertains to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor not honouring summonses no. 4 to 6 sent by the federal probe agency under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED said.

The federal anti-money laundering agency had earlier moved the magisterial court seeking Kejriwal's prosecution for not attending the first three summonses issued to him.

The court of ACMM Divya Malhotra has listed this matter (summonses no. 1 to 3) for hearing on March 16 along with the other complaint.

Kejriwal has so far skipped eight summones issued by the ED.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)