Politics

Supreme Court to Hear Arvind Kejriwal’s Plea Against Delhi High Court Order Upholding His Arrest

The Supreme Court will hear an appeal by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal against the Delhi High Court’s order, which had upheld his arrest by the CBI in connection with the corruption case related to the alleged excise policy scam. The top court will hear, along with this plea, Kejriwal’s separate plea for bail in the very same case.

A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan will hear both pleas by the AAP leader. The Supreme Court agreed to take up Kejriwal’s plea after senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who represents the Chief Minister, made an urgent mentioning on its listing.

On 5 August, the Delhi High Court termed Kejriwal’s arrest as legal and dismissed any type of malice on the part of the CBI. It, in fact, pointed out that the arrest was necessary to be shown to others, for when Kejriwal was arrested, it showed that until then even witnesses were not coming forward against him out of fear, and after he was detained, they got courage to come forward.

The high court has ordered Kejriwal to seek regular bail from the trial court in the CBI case. Furthermore, it was pointed out that the evidence found against Kejriwal was appreciable, and his arrest could not be termed unjustified or illegal. The court opined that Kejriwal was a man of great eminence and the winner of the Magsaysay Award, therefore he had immense influence that may tamper with witnesses.

The HC upheld Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest, saying the CBI had collected enough evidence before launching the case in April 2024. Although the investigation went on even outside Delhi to Punjab, since he happened to be the chief minister at that time, the witnesses were too afraid to come forth and make statements against him; these were substantially taken and taken after his arrest, making an even more strong case.

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The high court said courts have to be cautious and see that the powers under provisions of arrest and remand are not misused at least by the police. It also accepted that Kejriwal, who had been arrested by ED on 21 March and later released on bail by the trial court, was going through ordeal as the high court stayed the order of the bail passed by the lower court.

The Supreme Court had earlier granted interim bail to Kejriwal in a related money laundering case on July 12. The excise policy, the Richter scale of the controversy at hand, was withdrawn in 2022 on the instance of an ordered CBI probe by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi over alleged irregularities and corruption in its formulation and execution. Irregularities, according to the CBI and ED, have doled out undue favors to license holders as part of these irregularities.