Excise 'scam': ED seeks time from Delhi HC to respond to Kejriwal's plea against arrest
New Delhi (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday urged the Delhi High Court to grant it time to file reply to a plea by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging his arrest in a money-laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam.
Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the agency, said the "bulky" petition was served upon them only on Tuesday, and three weeks' time should be given to bring their stand on record.
For interim relief as well, appropriate time should be given to respond, he said.
Senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for the AAP leader, alleged that the request to file response was a delay tactic.
Challenge is to the foundation of arrest and there are several "glaring issues" that need immediate decision by the high court either way, the senior lawyer added.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said she would take up the matter again after some time.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener, who has sought his immediate release on account of the arrest and the subsequent remand to ED, was arrested on March 21 and subsequently remanded to the ED's custody till March 28 by a Delhi court.
On Friday, the trial court had remanded Kejriwal in the ED's custody till March 28 "for his detailed and sustained interrogation".
The ED arrested Kejriwal hours after the high court refused to grant him protection from coercive action by the federal anti-money laundering agency.
The case pertains to the alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 that was later scrapped.
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A strong magnitude 6.1 earthquake shakes Indonesia's Java Island, felt in Jakarta
Jakarta, Apr 27: A strong magnitude 6.1 earthquake shook the southern part of Indonesia's main island of Java on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of injury or significant property damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck 102 kilometers (63 miles) south of Banjar city at a depth of 68.3 kilometers (42.4 miles). There was no tsunami warning.
High-rises in the capital Jakarta swayed for around a minute and two-story homes shook strongly in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung and in Jakarta's satellite cities of Depok, Tangerang, Bogor and Bekasi. The quake was also felt in other cities in West Java, Yogyakarta and East Java province, according to Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency.
The agency warned of possible aftershocks.
Earthquakes are frequent across the sprawling archipelago nation, but they are rarely felt in Jakarta.
Indonesia, a seismically active archipelago of 270 million people, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on major geological faults known as the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake in 2022 killed at least 602 people in West Java's Cianjur city. It was the deadliest in Indonesia since a 2018 quake and tsunami in Sulawesi killed more than 4,300 people.
In 2004, an extremely powerful Indian Ocean quake set off a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia's Aceh province.
