The Supreme Court is set to hear on Wednesday Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea seeking bail in a corruption case filed by the CBI, stemming from the alleged excise policy scam case. The top court will also hear a separate plea from Kejriwal challenging his arrest by the central agency.
Both pleas by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief, filed after the Delhi High Court rejected his challenge to the arrest, will be heard by a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan. He has already got bail in the case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Kejriwal’s bail plea comes before the top court days after senior AAP leader and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was granted bail in the same case by the Supreme Court after spending 17 months in jail. Some legal experts have noted that Sisodia’s bail could also work in favour of Kejriwal.
The Delhi Chief Minister was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21, 2024, in a case related to the now-scrapped liquor policy of the AAP government in the national capital. He was later arrested by the CBI as well.
The Supreme Court had granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the ED case on July 12. On Monday, the top court agreed to take up Kejriwal's plea after senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for him, sought an urgent listing.
The Delhi High Court had on August 5 rejected Kejriwal's plea and upheld that his arrest by the CBI was legal, noting that there was no malice in the acts of the central agency. The court stated that the arrest was made only after sufficient evidence was collected and sanction was obtained.
The CBI had argued that the AAP supremo could influence witnesses who might muster the courage to depose only after his arrest.
Kejriwal, before the High Court, had stated that as the National Convenor of a national political party and a sitting Chief Minister, he was being subjected to "gross persecution and harassment for wholly malafide [in bad faith] and extraneous considerations".
However, the High Court stated, "...it establishes that the loop of evidence against the petitioner got closed after the collection of relevant evidence after his arrest. No malice whatsoever can be gathered from the acts of the respondent (CBI)”.
According to the central probe agencies, irregularities were committed in modifying the excise policy, and undue favours were extended to licence holders by the Delhi government in 2022. The policy was scrapped after the Delhi Lieutenant Governor ordered a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities and corruption.
