Supreme Court says no immediate interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal, issues notice to CBI
The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that it cannot grant immediate interim bail to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is seeking release from jail in connection with a corruption case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the excise policy case.
A bench of justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan also issued notice to the CBI on the pleas filed by Kejriwal in which he has challenged the August 5 decision of the Delhi high court affirming his arrest and denying him bail.
“We are not granting any interim bail. We will issue notice,” the bench told senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who wasappearing for Kejriwal, according to PTI.
The case will be heard next on August 23.
In his plea, filed two days after the top court granted bail to former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in a related probe by CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief has challenged his arrest and subsequent remand orders, while also pressing for bail.
Kejriwal, in the petitions filed on Monday, assailed the Delhi high court’s August 5 judgment, which ruled that his arrest was neither illegal nor without justifiable grounds because CBI presented “evidently enough evidence” to warrant his detention and remand.
His plea relied heavily on the Sisodia verdict, in which the top court held that the former deputy CM’s long incarceration of 17 months and his continued detention in a case where there was no hope of trial ending anytime soon impinged on his fundamental right to liberty and speedy trial under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The AAP chief’s petition argued that the grounds on which the court found it appropriate to release Sisodia on bail should equally apply to him.
What is the case against Arvind Kejriwal?
Kejriwal has been in custody since March 21 following his arrest by ED, apart from a 21-day interim bail in May granted by the top court for Lok Sabha election campaigning.
On July 12, the apex court granted him interim bail in the ED case, acknowledging that he had spent over 90 days in incarceration. Still, he continued to remain in custody due to his arrest by CBI on June 26 in the same matter.
The case against the CM stems from allegations of irregularities in Delhi’s now-scrapped excise policy of 2021-22, which CBI began probing following a recommendation by Delhi’s lieutenant governor in July 2022. Kejriwal was the third AAP leader arrested in this connection. Sisodia was incarcerated since February 2023 before he was released on August 9, and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh was granted bail by the top court in April, after six months of custody.