Excise Case: Delhi court extends judicial custody of Arvind Kejriwal till August 27

New Delhi [India], August 20 (ANI): In the Excise Policy case, Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court has extended Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s judicial custody in the CBI case until August 27, 2024.

The Special Judge Kaveri Baweja while fixing the matter for August 27, noted that the Court is also scheduled to consider the ED’s supplementary chargesheet filed against Kejriwal and others on the same day.

Senior Advocate DP Singh appeared for Central Bureau of Investigation in the matter.

Last week, the Supreme Court issued notice to the CBI on pleas of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking bail and challenging the Delhi High Court order upholding his arrest by the CBI in a corruption case stemming from the alleged excise policy scam.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan sought response from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by August 23 and refused interim bail to him.

When senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Kejriwal, pleaded for interim bail to Kejriwal on health grounds, the bench said, “We are not granting any interim bail. we issue notice.”

Singhvi said Kejriwal got interim bail on three occasions in the money laundering case despite the stringent rigours of Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

When he got 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, asked Singhvi while terming Kejriwal’s arrest by the CBI an “insurance arrest”.

The top court was hearing plea of Kejriwal against his arrest and a separate plea seeking bail in the case.

On August 5, the Delhi High Court upheld the arrest of the Chief Minister as “legal”. It had dismissed Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest, saying it was only after sufficient evidence was collected and sanction was obtained in April 2024 that the CBI proceeded with further probe against him.

The High Court had said there was no malice in the acts of the CBI which demonstrated how Kejriwal could influence witnesses who could muster the courage to depose only after his arrest.

It had said Kejriwal is 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,” it 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 in the now-cancelled Delhi excise policy 2021-22.

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