Excise Policy Case;Supreme court denies  immediate interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal, issues notice to CBI

Since his arrest on March 21, Arvind Kejriwal has been jailed by the Enforcement Directorate.

Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, is requesting to be released from jail in connection with a corruption case brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the excise policy case. However, the Supreme Court stated on Wednesday that it cannot grant him instant interim relief.

In addition, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan sent notice to the CBI on the appeals filed by Kejriwal, challenging the Delhi High Court’s August 5 ruling upholding his arrest and refusing him bail.

“No provision for temporary bail is being made. Senior attorney Abhishek Singhvi, who was representing Kejriwal, was informed by the bench, “We will issue notice,” according to PTI.

On August 23, the case will be heard again.

In an appeal filed two days after the top court freed former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia amid a connected probe by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED), the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has challenged his arrest and the remand orders that followed. In addition, he is asking for bail.

Kejriwal challenged the Delhi High Court’s August 5 decision in the Monday applications, arguing that the CBI had presented “evidently enough evidence” to justify Kejriwal’s custody and remand, meaning that his arrest was both legitimate and justified.

His argument mainly relied on the Sisodia decision, in which the Supreme Court decided that the former deputy Chief Minister’s 17-month imprisonment and his extended detention in a case that was unlikely to end in court anytime soon violated his basic constitutional right to liberty and a prompt trial.

The AAP leader argued in his plea that Sisodia ought to be released on the same conditions that the court had deemed reasonable.

What is Arvind Kejriwal’s case against him?

Kejriwal has been in custody since his arrest by the ED on March 21, with the exception of a 21-day provisional bail granted by the top court in May so that he may run for the Lok Sabha election.

On July 12, the Supreme Court in the ED case granted him provisional bail after acknowledging that he had been in custody for longer than ninety days. He was still in custody, though, since the CBI had nabbed him on June 26 in relation to the same case.

On the lieutenant governor of Delhi’s advice, the CBI began investigating the charges of inconsistencies in the now-canceled excise policy of 2021–2022. This was in July 2022. The case against the chief minister resulted from this. Kejriwal was the third AAP leader to be arrested in this regard. The top court in April granted bail to Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh following his six-month incarceration. Sisodia was detained from February 2023 until his August 9 release.