News: What is the case against Arvind Kejriwal?

Hemant Soren Bail News: Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren got a setback from the Supreme Court when a bench of Justice Dipankar Dutta and Satish Chandra refused to hear his bail plea on Wednesday. After this, Soren's lawyer has withdrawn his petition. Hemant Soren had sought interim bail given the Lok Sabha elections.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also sought interim bail given the Lok Sabha elections. The bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Dipankar Dutta has granted bail to Kejriwal till June 1. In such a situation, the question arises as to why the Supreme Court rejected Soren's petition. Whereas Kejriwal was granted interim bail.

What is the case against Arvind Kejriwal?

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in a money laundering case related to the alleged liquor policy. Within two days of his arrest, Kejriwal approached the Delhi High Court challenging the legality of his arrest. Which was a very important step in Kejriwal's case.

Usually, a regular bail petition is filed before the trial court. Then it can be filed in the High Court and Supreme Court. However, there are many hurdles in granting bail under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act i.e. PMLA. Due to this, it is extremely impossible to get bail. Section 45 of PMLA mentions the process of granting bail. According to this, the accused will have to prove in the court that prima facie a case is not made out against him and he will not commit any crime during the period of bail.

After challenging the legality of the arrest, the accused had to prove in the court that there was no need for the ED to arrest him. And ED illegally used its power of arrest under Section 19 of PMLA.

A petition challenging the arrest is filed directly before the Constitutional Court. That means the accused can directly approach the High Court and then the Supreme Court. This means that challenging illegal arrest as compared to a bail petition saves the time spent before the trial court.

The High Court had upheld Kejriwal's arrest on 9 April. After which he moved to the Supreme Court. Since the matter was pending in the Supreme Court the decision was bound to take time. Therefore, keeping the Lok Sabha elections in mind, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal.

However, the Supreme Court said that granting bail to Kejriwal did not create any special circumstances for the leaders. But Arvind Kejriwal is the Chief Minister of Delhi and the leader of one of the national parties. Serious allegations have been made against him, but there has been no conviction in any of them. Giving 21 days of interim bail to Kejriwal will not make much difference.

Why did Hemant Soren not get bail?

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren was arrested by ED on January 31 in an alleged land scam case. On the same day, Soren's lawyers filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the legality of the arrest. Jharkhand High Court had reserved its decision on February 28 and two months later, refused to grant interim bail to Soren.

Meanwhile, the ED filed a chargesheet against Soren and the trial court took cognizance of it on April 4. Filing a chargesheet in court is routine work. Under this, the ED informed the court that prima facie a case of crime is made out against the accused i.e. Hemant Soren. The court has to investigate this chargesheet and frame charges. But the High Court had reserved its order. Meanwhile, Soren's lawyers filed a bail petition before the trial court. But the trial court rejected the petition.

After this, Soren's lawyers approached the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court expressed displeasure over the move of Soren's lawyers that Soren was trying to find two ways to get bail by filing this bail petition. This is the reason why Soren's lawyers withdrew the petition challenging the arrest from the Supreme Court.

Apart from this, Arvind Kejriwal's party is a national party and he is the president of the party. Whereas Hemant Soren's party is a regional party and he is not even the president of the party. Shibu Soren, father of Hemant Soren, is the president of Hemant Soren's party JMM. Also, Hemant Soren had resigned from the post of Chief Minister before his arrest. Whereas Kejriwal did not resign from the post of Chief Minister.