The Supreme Court on Friday posted a hearing for September 5 on the plea by incarcerated Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking bail and questioning his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with alleged irregularities and corruption in the 2021-2022 Delhi excise policy scam.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal 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 posted the matter for hearing on September 5, granting an additional week for the investigating agency to file a reply in one of the pleas.
The bench allowed the extension after Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the CBI, sought more time to file an affidavit for one of the petitions, noting that the agency had already submitted its reply in another related petition.
Kejriwal’s counsel, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, told the bench that the affidavit was filed at 8 pm on Thursday night in a deliberate move so that it did not reach the bench on time.
In its reply, the Central Bureau of Investigation alleged that Kejriwal is sensationalising the case politically and has been involved in a criminal conspiracy in the formulation and implementation of the 2021-2022 Delhi excise policy.
The Supreme Court on August 14 had sought response from the investigating agency on Kejriwal’s plea seeking bail and challenging his arrest in the 2021-2022 Delhi excise policy scam.
While seeking a reply from the CBI and posting the matter for hearing on August 23, the bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan had, on August 14, refused to grant interim bail to Kejriwal.
“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 health grounds.
Singhvi had told the bench that Kejriwal got interim bail on three occasions in the alleged money laundering dimension arising from the Delhi excise policy case despite the stringent Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Having pointed out that Kejriwal got interim bail in the PMLA case thrice, Singhvi had said that when the Chief Minister got bail under the stringent PMLA, how could he be denied a regular bail in the CBI case since the Prevention of Corruption Act does not have stringent conditions similar to the money laundering law.
Dismissing Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest by the CBI, the Delhi High Court on August 5, 2024, upheld his arrest as “legal” and 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 Kejriwal’s arrest by the CBI and noted that as an influential person, witnesses might only muster the courage to depose against him after his arrest. The High Court highlighted 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 and corruption in the now-cancelled Delhi excise policy 2021-22.
On June 26, 2024, the AAP chief was arrested by the CBI while he was in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate in the case.