In a major set back to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to grant him interim protection from arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the excise policy case.

Kejriwal, who is also the national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had sought interim relief from any coercive action in a money laundering case linked to the alleged irregularities in the now scrapped Delhi excise policy.

A division bench of the high court comprising Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Manoj Jain said that they can’t pass any order at this stage.

The court, however, granted liberty to the central probe agency to file response to the Delhi chief minister’s application.

Earlier on Wednesday, the court had sought Enforcement Directorate’s response to Kejriwal’s please challenging the summons issues to him by the agency and listed the case for hearing on April 22.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Kejriwal, told the court that the agency was “attempting a non level playing field” ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, which will be held in seven phases from April 19.

He further said that the ED has not informed Kejriwal that in what capacity he is being summoned and claimed the agency want to arrest the AAP chief.

He said that the action of ED is due to elections and called it “vague, frivolous and motivated.”

The ED had opposed Kejriwal’s application and contended he can’t go beyond the law. He also told the court that Kejriwal has been summoned by the ED in personal capacity and not as a chief minister or the AAP chief.

Reacting to the development, the BJP has called Kejriwal a “highly corrupt leader” and asked if he would still keep running away from the investigation.

“No matter how much you try to hide the lies, no matter how many stories you create, no matter how many new lies you create. No matter how much one tries to deceive the public, in the end only truth prevails….The court also refused to grant interim relief from arrest. Will he still keep running away or face investigation?” the Delhi BJP said.