Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal  was remanded to three-day custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), hours after he was arrested by the Central probe agency in connection with the money laundering probe into now-scrapped excise policy.

Special Judge Amitabh Rawat passed the order on an application moved by the CBI which formally arrested Kejriwal after obtaining permission from the court.

“The CBI’s application is allowed for three days. The accused be produced before 7 pm,” the judge said while passing the order on the CBI application. Kejriwal will be produced before the court on June 29.

The CBI, earlier on Wednesday, formally arrested Kejriwal in the said case and had sought five-day custody.

During the remand period, the court has also allowed Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal and his Lawyer to meet him for 30 minutes every day. Furthermore, the court also allowed them to carry his prescribed medicines and home-cook food during the remand period.

Shortly after the arrest, Kejriwal withdrew the petition filed in the Supreme Court challenging the order passed by the Delhi High Court staying his bail in the money laundering case. Appearing for the Delhi Chief Minister, senior advocate A M Singhvi made the request to withdraw the plea before a vacation bench of Justices Manoj Misra and S V N Bhatti and the bench allowed it and dismissed the plea as withdrawn.

Notably, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case investigated the alleged money trail, the CBI case will have to prove corruption and bribe-taking by public servants. The probe agency on Tuesday examined the AAP supremo in Tihar Jail and recorded his statement related to the Excise Policy case.

Kejriwal will remain in the CBI’s custody until his custodial interrogation in the corruption case comes to an end, which can go on for a maximum of 15 days. If he fails to secure bail in both the cases being probed by the CBI and ED, he will go back to judicial custody once his police remand ends in the present case.

The CBI in its application, seeking his remand for five days told the court that he was required to be quizzed to unearth the larger conspiracy in the matter. It also said the Delhi Chief Minister was required to be confronted with evidence and other people accused in the case.

“We need his custodial interrogation... He is not even recognising that (co-accused) Vijay Nair was working under him. He says Nair was working under Atishi Marlena and Saurabh Bharadwaj. He puts the entire onus on Manish Sisodia (also accused in the case). He has to be confronted. He has to be shown documents,” the CBI said. The agency claimed that the “south lobby” visited Delhi when the COVID-19 wave was at its peak. The CBI counsel, however, said they had argued on facts and that no agency source had stated anything. To this, the judge said the media picks up one line. “It is very difficult to control media that way,” he added.

The CBI also accused Kejriwal of making “unnecessary allegation of malice”. “Unnecessary allegation of malice are being made. We could have conducted these proceedings before the elections. I (CBI) am doing my job, satisfying every court,” the counsel representing the CBI said.

When the court asked why was Kejriwal being arrested now, the CBI counsel said the probe agency refrained from arresting him while the elections were going on. “The court was considering his interim bail for elections. If at that time, I (CBI) would have arrested... That shows my restraint that I did not arrest him when he was campaigning,” the counsel said. During the hearing, Kejriwal’s lawyers argued that the agency’s move to arrest the AAP boss at this point showed it had acted “in a most biased manner”. The reference was to the fact the CBI had already quizzed him in connection with this case - for nine hours in April last year.

During the hearing on Wednesday, Kejriwal addressed the Court in person and maintained that he and other AAP leaders including Manish Sisodia who have been implicated in the case, are innocent. He also rebutted the CBI’s claim that Kejriwal had shifted the entire blame on Manish Sisodia.

“Maine aesa koi bayan nahi diya hai ki Manish Sisodia doshi hai. Manish Sisodia nirdosh hai, AAP nirdosh hai, main nirdosh hu. Unka saara plan hai hame media main badnaam karne ka. CBI k sources n chalwaya... Inke saare aarop jhhute hain (I have never testified that Manish Sisodia is guilty. Manish Sisodia is innocent, AAP is innocent, I am innocent. Their aim is to malign us through media. CBI has activated its ‘sources’. All their claims are false),” he said.

He alleged that the CBI’s objective is to ensure that media headlines are manipulated to reflect that Kejriwal has put the entire blame on Sisodia.

“Inka idea ye hai ki kal front page pe top headline honi chahiye ki Kejriwal n saara theekra Manish Sisodia pe foda. They are sensationalising the issue. Ye kal top headline hogi har akhbaar me. Inka aaj kewal ye maqsad hi hai (Their idea is to ensure that front page headlines should be ‘Kejriwal has put all blame on Manish Sisodia. They want this headline in all newspapers. That is their sole aim),” Kejriwal said.

The Court too agreed with Kejriwal and said that Kejriwal had not stated what the CBI was attributing to him. “Apki statement maine padh li hai, aapne aesa nahi kaha hai (I read your statement. You have not said what CBI has claimed (on Sisodia),” the judge said.

Kejriwal then explained what he had said in his statement to the CBI. “Maine kaha tha 3 objectives hain excise policy ke. Hame revenue badhana tha aur jo lambi lines lagti hain wo khatam karni hain aur equitable distribution... Maine Manish Sisodia ko bula ke ye 3 directions diye the. They asked ki privatisation kiska idea tha? I said, mera idea nahi tha,” the Delhi CM stated. “Media picks up one line. It is very difficult to control media that way,” the Court remarked while reserving its order.

The defence also requested the judge to provide documents related to the CBI proceedings against Kejriwal, including the court order related to his interrogation in Tihar prison on Tuesday evening.

The CBI had registered a case of corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act) back in 2022, but it did not name Kejriwal as an accused.