On March 21, 2024, Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate for corruption related to the excise policy. Ahead of a Supreme Court hearing, an image circulated on social media platforms, with claims depicting Kejriwal as representing himself and PM Modi would regret Kejriwal’s national attention.
A Facebook user posted with a caption: “History will be made 🔥🔥Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has chosen to represent himself in Supreme Court as a Lawyer🤯🤯Modi will be regretting now, he didn’t imagine that AK will grab the biggest stage of the nation #IStandWithKejriwal#BJPFreezesIndianDemocracy”.
The above post can be seen here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above picture, and found it to be AI-generated and shared with false claims.
With a keyword search, the NM team traced a news report in The Indian Express, dated March 22, 2024, with a headline: “Arvind Kejriwal withdraws plea against ED arrest from Supreme Court”.
In a report by The Indian Express regarding Kejriwal’s withdrawal of his plea, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented Kejriwal, informed Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta that his client opted to present his case before the trial court. Singhvi explained, “As the remand is clashing, decided to withdraw it and fight that remand… Otherwise there will be arguments of remand and then high court and then…” The bench approved his request.
Before Kejriwal’s arrest on March 22, a division bench comprising Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain had declined to issue any interim relief on Kejriwal’s plea. They queried why he hadn’t appeared before the probe agency in response to the summons.
Additionally, on the afternoon of March 22, Kejriwal appeared in the Rouse Avenue court, where the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought 10-day custody of the AAP chief. Once again, his case was argued by Abhishek Singhvi, supported by senior advocates Ramesh Gupta and Vikram Chaudhary.
These events solidify the fact that Kejriwal is not acting as his representative but is represented by Abhishek Singhvi.
Upon searching the Supreme Court’s website with case number ‘13598’, we verified that the case titled “ARVIND KEJRIWAL vs. DIRECTORATE OF ENFORCEMENT” was filed on March 21, 2024, at 08:57 p.m., consistent with the details in the viral post’s image.
However, the petitioners listed in the case diary on the site include “1 ARVIND KEJRIWAL S/D/W/Thru:- G.R. KEJRIWAL, 6, FLAG STAFF ROAD, CIVIL LINES, CENTRAL*, DELHI,” which contrasts with the presentation of just “Arvind Kejriwal” in the viral image. Additionally, the diary mentions the name of the petitioner’s advocate as ‘Vivek Jain’, rather than “PETITIONER IN-PERSON,” as depicted in the viral image. Vivek Jain serves as the advocate on record in this case, a fact supported by various sources.
We also put the image through Hive Moderation — a tool that detects AI-generated content, we found that the picture in question is 99.7% AI-generated.
Hence, we can conclusively state that Delhi’s Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, has not opted to represent himself as a lawyer in the Supreme Court.
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