The Supreme Court will hear on Thursday incarcerated Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea seeking bail and questioning his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the alleged irregularities and corruption in the 2021-2022 Delhi excise policy scam.
Kejriwal is already on interim bail in the alleged money laundering case registered by the Directorate of Enforcement. The Chief Minister has approached the top court challenging the Delhi High Court order refusing him bail and upholding his arrest by the CBI.
A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on August 14 had sought response from the investigating agency on Kejriwal’s plea seeking bail and challenging his arrest in 2021-2022 Delhi Excise Policy scam.
While seeking a reply from the CBI, the court had declined to grant interim bail to Kejriwal and posted the matter for hearing on August 23.
“We are not granting any interim bail. we issue notice”, the bench had said on August 14, when senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi urged the court to grant interim bail to the Chief Minister on the health grounds.
However, when the matter came up for hearing on August 23, the Central Bureau of Investigation sought more time to file its replay in one of the petitions and was given a week’s time to do it. The matter was posted for hearing on September 5.
The bench granted a week’s more time after Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju who appeared for the CBI had sought time to file an affidavit in one of the petitions and submitted that agency had filed its reply in the other related petition.
The Central Bureau of Investigation in its reply has alleged that Kejriwal is politically sensationalising the case and has been involved in the criminal conspiracy in the formulation and implementation of the 2021-2022 Delhi excise policy.
Dismissing Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest by the CBI, the Delhi High Court on August 5, 2024, had upheld his arrest as “legal” and had said that it was only after sufficient evidence was collected by the investigating agency and sanction was obtained in April 2024, that the CBI proceeded with further probe against him.
The High Court had further said that there was no malice in his arrest by the CBI and he was an influential person and witnesses could muster the courage to depose against him only after his arrest. The High Court had said that Kejriwal was not an ordinary citizen but a distinguished recipient of the Magsaysay Award and the convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party.
“The control and the influence which he has on the witnesses is prima facie borne out from the fact that these witnesses could muster the courage to be a witness only after the arrest of the petitioner, as highlighted by the special prosecutor,” the High Court had said in its order.
Kejriwal was arrested by ED on March 21, 2024 in connection with a money laundering probe relating to alleged irregularities and corruption in the now-cancelled Delhi excise policy 2021-22.
On June 26, 2024, the AAP Chief was arrested by CBI while he was in custody of the Enforcement Directorate in the case.