The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday informed the Supreme Court that Arvind Kejriwal is likely to tamper with evidence and hamper its ongoing probe in the excise policy scam case, if he is released on interim bail. In a counter-affidavit filed before the Supreme Court opposing Kejriwal's pleas challenging arrest and seeking bail in the excise policy scam case, the CBI has stated that all critical decisions in the formulation of the excise policy were taken at Kejriwal's behest and there is substantial evidence pointing to his involvement.

"The petitioner does not hold any Ministerial portfolio, including that of Excise. However, it emerged over a period of time that all the critical decisions in the formulation of the new Excise Policy were taken at the behest of the Petitioner, in connivance with the then Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Excise Manish Sisodia", the CBI said in its affidavit.

Justifying arrest of Kejriwal, the CBI claimed that it was necessitated after his examination on June 25, 2024 when he remained "evasive and non-cooperative, gave evasive replies regarding his role and that of other co-accused in respect of criminal conspiracy hatched."

"His replies were contrary to the oral and documentary evidence gathered by CBI during the investigation and he failed to disclose the facts truthfully, despite being confronted with incriminating evidence," the CBI said.

“The balance of convenience in the present case lies in favour of the CBI. Any release of the Petitioner on bail will gravely prejudice the trial of the case, which is at initial stage and key witnesses are yet to depose. No case has been made out by the Petitioner to be released on medical bail, which ought to be granted only if the treatment is not possible in the Jail. All other averments have already been dealt with by the CBI above, and not repeated herein for brevity,” it said.

A bench of justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan allowed the CBI to file its counter affidavit in the matter and gave two days' time to Kejriwal to file a rejoinder, and deferred the matter till September 5.Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal,has told Supreme Court that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is deliberately delaying the hearing in Arvind Kejriwal’s bail petition. Singhvi pointed out that the affidavit by CBI was filed late last night at 8 pm so that it doesn’t reach judges on time for the hearing today.Additional Solicitor General SV Raju for the CBI however said that he had already filed the first counter and was seeking time to file another one and that today was the first returnable date.

The CBI stated the now defunct policy was notified on May 25, 2021 having the provisions of enhanced profit margin of 12% for the wholesalers. "As such, the file relating to new excise policy of Delhi was moved in very hurried manner during the peak of 2nd wave of the corona pandemic. It has been confirmed by Pravesh Jha, Additional Secretary to the petitioner that he was asked by Bibhav Kumar, PA to the petitioner that the Chief Minister has desired that the draft excise policy has to be got approved by Council of Ministers through circulation urgently," it said.

“In view of the facts and circumstances of the instant case, it is submitted that the petition being devoid of any merits is liable to be dismissed. The same is an attempt to misuse the intricacies of law to thwart the further progress of the case and is as such liable to be dismissed,” the CBI said.

Further corroboration of the complicity of the accused is evident from the fact that co-accused Butchibabu Gorantla, Abhishek Boinpally and Arun R Pillai had come to Delhi on May 20, 2021 in a Chartered Flight and had a meeting with the accused Vijay Nair, approver Dinesh Arora and some liquor businessman of Delhi at the guest house of Uttam Galva Company situated at Gauri Apartments, near Claridges Hotel, New Delhi on May 21, 2021. The said guest house was got booked by Bibhav Kumar, PA of the petitioner, it alleged.

The agency has claimed that the petitioner had got the funds used for the purpose of the Goa Elections, assuring the candidates of Aam Aadmi Party to not worry about the expenditure, which was taken care of by the party.

The election expenditure of the Aam Aadmi Party for the Goa Elections, as per election expenditure submitted by AAP was only Rs 3,49,45,345, out of which Rs 2,43,30,760 has been made on Media Advertisement and Party Propaganda and, whereas, a meagre Rs 21,33,714 was shown to have been made on publicity materials including posters, banners, badges, stickers, cut-outs, hoarding, flags etc, it pointed out.

Kejriwal has filed two separate petitions challenging denial of bail and against his arrest by the CBI in the case. He has challenged the August 5 orders of the Delhi High Court. On August 14, the top court refused to grant interim bail to Kejriwal in the case and sought a response from the probe agency on his plea challenging his arrest. Kejriwal was arrested by the CBI on June 26.

The Delhi High Court had on August 5 upheld the arrest of the chief minister as legal, and said there was no malice in the acts done by the CBI which was able to demonstrate how the AAP supremo could influence witnesses who could muster the courage to depose only after his arrest.