The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought CBI’s response in connection with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea for bail and his challenge to the arrest in a criminal case related to the alleged 2021-2022 Delhi Excise Policy scam.

Refusing interim bail to Kejriwal and issuing a notice to the CBI, a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan sought a response from the investigating agency by August 23, 2024.

“We are not granting any interim bail. We issue notice,” the bench said when Kejriwal’s counsel, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, requested interim bail for the Chief Minister on health grounds.

Singhvi told the bench that Kejriwal had been granted interim bail on three occasions in the alleged money laundering aspect of the Delhi Excise Policy case, despite the stringent provisions of Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Pointing out that Kejriwal had got interim bail three times in the PMLA case, Singhvi argued that if he was granted bail under the stringent PMLA, how could he be denied regular bail in the CBI case since the Prevention of Corruption Act does not have stringent conditions similar to the money laundering law.

Singhvi said that Kejriwal’s arrest by the CBI is an ‘insurance arrest’.

Dismissing Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest by the CBI, the Delhi High Court on August 5, 2024, upheld his arrest as ‘legal’. The court said that the CBI proceeded with further investigation only after collecting sufficient evidence and obtaining sanction in April 2024.

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 convener 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 the ED on March 21, 2024, in connection with a money laundering probe relating to alleged irregularities in the now-cancelled Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.

On June 26, 2024, the CBI arrested the AAP chief while he was in custody of the Enforcement Directorate in the case.