SC to consider listing of Arvind Kejriwal's plea against arrest by CBI

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider listing for hearing a plea of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal against the Delhi High Court order upholding his arrest by the CBI in a corruption case stemming from the alleged Delhi excise policy scam case reported news agency PTIThe 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 of the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI which demonstrated how the AAP supremo could influence witnesses who could muster the courage to depose only after his arrestThe high court had asked him to move the trial court for regular bail in the CBI caseSenior advocate Abhishek Singhvi appearing for Kejriwal mentioned the plea for urgent listing before a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra reported PTIHe said bail pleas of other accused under the PMLA the Prevention of Money Laundering Act are already listed for hearingPlease email it I will look at it the CJI said reported PTIThe appeal has been filed by the chief minister in the top court lawyer Vivek Jain associated with the case saidThe high court had noted that the loop of evidence against the chief minister got closed after collection of relevant evidence following his arrest by the CBI and it cannot be said that it was without any justifiable reason or illegalIt said Kejriwal is not an ordinary citizen but a distinguished recipient of the Magsaysay Award and the convenor of the Aam Aadmi PartyThe control and the influence which he has on the witnesses is prima facie borne out from the fact that these witnesses could muster the courage to be a witness only after the arrest of the petitioner as highlighted by the special prosecutor Also it establishes that the loop of evidence against the petitioner got closed after collection of relevant evidence after his arrest No malice whatsoever can be gathered from the acts of the respondent CBI the high court had said reported PTIThe high court had dismissed Kejriwals plea challenging his arrest saying it was only after sufficient evidence was collected and sanction was obtained in April 2024 that the agency proceeded with further probe against him in the Delhi excise policy scam caseIt had noted that the links to the crime extended even to Punjab but material witnesses were not coming forward due to the influence exercised by Kejriwal by virtue of his position It was only after he got arrested that the witnesses came forward to record their statements the high court had said on the Delhi excise policy scam caseIt is a bounden duty of every court more so the courts of first instance to ensure that the extraordinary powers of arrest and remand are not misused or are resorted to by the police in a casual and cavalier manner the high court had observed reported PTIThe chief minister 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 courts order was stayed by the high courtOn July 12 the Supreme Court granted him interim bail in the money laundering caseThe excise policy was scrapped in 2022 after the Delhi lieutenant governor ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities and corruption involving the formulation and execution of the excise policyAccording to the CBI and the ED irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours extended to licence holdersWith inputs from PTI