The Supreme Court on Friday is expected to deliver its verdict on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s petitions seeking bail and challenging his arrest by the CBI in the excise policy case. A bench headed by Justice Surya Kant will pronounce the verdict, according to the cause list of September 13 uploaded on the apex court website.
The bench, also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, had on September 5 reserved its verdict on the pleas. Kejriwal has filed two separate petitions challenging the denial of bail and against his arrest by the CBI in the corruption case filed by the central agency.
AAP Chief’s Arrest
The AAP chief was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on June 26. He has challenged in the apex court the Delhi High Court’s August 5 order which upheld his arrest in the corruption case. The high court had noted that the loop of evidence against Kejriwal got closed after collection of relevant evidence following his arrest by the CBI and it cannot be said that it was without any justifiable reason or illegal.
The high court had also granted him liberty to approach a trial court with his plea seeking bail in the case. The matter relates to alleged corruption in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22, which has now been scrapped.
‘We are very hopeful’
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha said they are “hopeful” and are waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision on Delhi CM Kejriwal’s bail. Chadha, who was in Haryana, also made an appeal to voters to choose the AAP in the October 5 assembly elections. “We are very hopeful. We are waiting for tomorrow,” Chadha told reporters.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also lodged a separate money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy ‘scam’. According to the CBI and the ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours extended to licence holders.
On July 12, the apex court had granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the money laundering case. The top court had referred to a larger bench, preferably of five judges, for in-depth consideration of three questions on the aspect of “need and necessity of arrest” under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
‘Money laundering’
The ED had on March 21 arrested Kejriwal in connection with the money laundering case. During the arguments on September 5 on Kejriwal’s plea in the corruption case, the chief minister had vehemently opposed in the apex court the CBI’s contentions that he should have approached the trial court first for bail in the corruption case.
Questioning the maintainability of Kejriwal’s pleas, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the CBI, had submitted that even in the money laundering case in which he had challenged his arrest by the ED, he was sent back by the apex court to the trial court.
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