AAP convener and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court seeking bail in a CBI case related to the alleged liquor policy scam.
The counsel for Kejriwal mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela which said it would be heard on Friday.
Notably, Kejriwal has directly approached the High Court for seeking bail without approaching the trial court. According to AAP legal team, there is no bar in going directly to the High Court for bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Advocate Rajat Bhardwaj, appearing for Kejriwal, asserted that the applicant was taken into illegal custody without following the due procedure of law and he has filed a bail plea. As the counsel insisted on fixing the plea for hearing on Thursday, Justice Manmohan said, “Let the learned judge go through the papers. We will have it day after.”
In his petition, Kejriwal alleged the CBI was continuously haranguing and harassing him in the garb of the ongoing investigations in the liquor policy case, and called it a matter of grave dismay and concern. The Chief Minister also alleged he rendered all due cooperation and assistance to the CBI when he was called for interrogations in April 2023. His arrest is wholly illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable, the Chief Minister claimed, adding, that the remand orders are patently routine, leading to vitiation of the entire process of arrest and proceedings.
"The investigations have already been completed and the materials which form the basis of the arrest have already been gathered. A premier investigating agency like the CBI cannot play truant with the process of law. It has to act with dispassion and objectivity while dispelling any notion of bias or lop-sided approach," the petition by Arvind Kejriwal read. Kejriwal has also challenged a trial court's July 1 order rejecting his application for directions to the prison authorities for allowing two additional meetings every week with his lawyers through video conference. He is currently allowed two meetings with his lawyers in a week.
The Delhi Chief Minister's plea challenging his arrest by the CBI and the trial court order remanding him to the agency's custody is also pending before the High Court. The court had issued notice and asked the CBI to file its reply while listing it for arguments on July 17.
The AAP convener was arrested by the CBI on June 26 from Tihar Jail, where he is still lodged in judicial custody in a connected money laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Kejriwal, who was arrested by the ED on March 21, was granted bail by the trial court in the money laundering case on June 20. However, the trial court's order was stayed by the high court.
The excise policy was scrapped in 2022 after the Delhi lieutenant governor ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities and corruption involving its formulation and execution.According to the CBI and ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours extended to the licence holders.
While a Rouse Avenue Court has extended till July 12 the judicial custody of Kejriwal in the money laundering case related to the alleged excise policy scam. Kejriwal appeared before the court of Special Judge Kaveri Baweja through video conference.
