New Delhi, 25 June

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday stayed the trial court order granting bail to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case stemming from the alleged excise scam.

A vacation bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain said the trial court failed to appreciate the material placed before it by the Enforcement Directorate and did not apply its mind while deciding the AAP leader's bail plea.

The judge also said the trial court ought to have given adequate opportunity to the agency to argue its case. "The operation of the impugned order is stayed," the bench said.

The trial court had granted bail to Kejriwal on June 20 and ordered his release on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh.

ED moved the high court the next day and contended that the trial court's order was "perverse", "one-sided" and "wrong-sided" and that the findings were based on irrelevant facts.

The excise policy was scrapped in 2022 after the Delhi lieutenant governor ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities and corruption involving its formulation and execution. According to the CBI and the ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours extended to the licence holders.