Excise policy 'scam': Supreme Court refuses interim bail to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, August 14

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to release Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on interim bail even as it asked the CBI to respond to his petitions seeking bail and challenging his arrest in a corruption case linked to the excise policy ‘scam’.

"We are not granting any interim bail. We will issue notice," a Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan told senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented Kejriwal, and posted the matter for further hearing on August 23.

Kejriwal has challenged the Delhi High Court’s August 5 order upholding his arrest by the CBI in a corruption case linked to the excise policy ‘scam’.

The high court had said there was no malice in the acts of the CBI which demonstrated how the AAP supremo could influence witnesses who could muster the courage to depose only after his arrest. It had asked him to move the trial court for regular bail in the CBI case.

On July 12, the Supreme Court had granted interim bail to him in the money laundering case linked to the excise ‘scam’. The top court had restrained from visiting the Chief Minister’s Office and Delhi Secretariat and directed him not to sign official files unless it’s required and necessary for obtaining clearance/approval of the Delhi L-G. It also restrained him from commenting on his role in the money-laundering case against him and asked him not to interact with witnesses and/or have access to official files connected with the case.

Arrested on March 21 by the ED, the AAP National Convenor was released on a 21-day interim bail by the top court on May 10 to enable him to campaign in the Lok Sabha polls. He surrendered on June 2.

Delhi Vacation Judge Niyay Bindu had on June 20 ordered Kejriwal’s release, saying the ED failed to give any direct evidence linking him to the proceeds of the crime and that the probe agency failed to show that co-accused Vijay Nair was acting on his behalf. She had also said that the ED was acting with bias against the Delhi chief minister.

However, the Delhi High Court stayed the bail granted to Kejriwal the very next day. Later, in a detailed judgment, the high court termed Bindu’s order "perverse".

On June 26, Kejriwal was arrested by the CBI in a corruption case linked to the excise policy scam.

Kejriwal’s bail plea has come before the top court days after senior AAP leader and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was granted bail in the same case by the Supreme Court after spending 17 months in jail.