Arvind Kejriwal sent to three-day CBI custody in Delhi excise policy case
A Delhi court on Wednesday sent chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to three-day CBI custody, hours after he was arrested by the central agency in connection with the money laundering probe into now-scrapped excise policy.
Rouse Avenue court’s vacation judge Amitabh Rawat ordered that Kejriwal would be produced before the court on June 29 before 7:00 PM.
“The application for PC remand allowed for 3 days. He will be produced on 29 before 7 PM,” the court said.
In the application moved before the court, the CBI had said that Kejriwal was required to be questioned to unearth the ‘larger conspiracy’ in the case.
The agency said that the Delhi chief minister was required to be confronted with evidence and other people accused in the case.
Federal agencies had earlier claimed that a so-called “south lobby” dictated the formulation of the now-scrapped excise policy and that the chief minister was involved in all this.
CBI’s counsel DP Singh told court that the agency needs Kejriwal’s custodial interrogation since “he is failing to even recognise that Vijay Nair was working under him.”
Singh claimed that Kejriwal had said that Nair was working with Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi Marlena, adding that the CM is “pushing the entire onus on Manish Sisodia & saying that he has no idea about the excise policy.”
“I have never given any statement saying that Manish Sisodia is guilty. I have given statement that Aam Aadmi Party, Manish Sisodia & me (Kejriwal) are not guilty,” Kejriwal told the court.
“CBI’s idea is to give sensational headlines to the media that Kejriwal shifted the entire blame on Manish Sisodia,” the chief minister added.
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal took to X and slammed the chief minister’s arrest. “”Arvind Kejriwal got bail on 20th June. Immediately ED got a stay. The very next day CBI made him an accused. And today he was arrested. The whole system is trying to ensure that the man does not come out of jail. This is not law. This is dictatorship, this is emergency,” she posted.