Delhi liquor policy case: The Supreme Court has granted Arvind Kejriwal interim bail but he is still in jail as CBI had arrested him in a related matter.
Delhi liquor policy case: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a charge sheet against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and others in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court in connection with the excise policy case.
Arvind Kejriwal, who is also the Aam Aadmi Party national convener, was arrested by the Enforecement Directorate on March 21 in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam. The Supreme Court has granted him interim bail but he is still in jail as the Central Bureau of Investigation had arrested him in a related matter.
Arvind Kejriwal has already been granted interim bail by the Supreme Court in the money laundering case registered by the ED.
The court said there was no merit in the State’s objection that Arvind Kejriwal continues to be in judicial custody in the corruption case lodged by the CBI, and nothing prevented him from moving a similar application in that case or other cases pending against him in various states.
“Indisputably, he has some thirty – forty cases against him in various States and continues to be in custody in the CBI case. To confine this fundamental right to a particular case and to insist on an independent application in each case, is not only taking a myopic view but would result in multiplicity of similar relief being asserted in different cases,” the court said.
It added that to ask Arvind Kejriwal to move independent applications in each case would lead to delay and may indirectly deny him the right to effective legal help.
Opposing Kejriwal’s petition, Tihar jail authorities had contended there are many prisoners who have 100 cases pending against them and they are allowed only two meetings with their lawyers every week.
The ED had alleged that Arvind Kejriwal was using his meetings with lawyers for sending out instructions to the ministers of the Delhi government.
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In separate petitions, Arvind Kejriwal has challenged his arrest in the corruption case registered by the CBI in the alleged excise policy scam and also sought bail.
The AAP leader was arrested by the CBI on June 26 from Tihar Jail, where he was lodged in judicial custody in a connected money laundering case filed by the 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 Supreme Court granted him interim bail on July 12 in the money laundering case till a larger bench considers three questions on the aspect of “need and necessity of arrest” under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
He is yet to secure bail in the corruption case registered by the CBI in connection with the alleged excise scam.
