New Delhi: The Supreme Court has granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation pertaining to the 2021-22 Delhi excise policy.
Kejriwal is now set to walk out of jail as he had been granted interim bail in July in the money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate. He had challenged the Delhi High Court’s verdict on 5 August that had upheld his arrest by CBI, calling it “legal”.
Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan gave separate opinions in the case Friday, while jointly agreeing that the Delhi chief minister should get regular bail.
Justice Kant said that the basic principle behind his decision was the “issue of liberty”, which is “integral to a sensitised judicial process”.
“Prolonged incarceration amounts to unjust deprivation of liberty,” he said. He also asked Kejriwal not to make any public comment on the merits of the case.
In his judgment, Justice Bhuyan concurred with Justice Kant and observed, “As far as grounds of arrest are concerned, these would not satisfy the necessity of arrest. CBI can’t justify arrest and continue detention citing evasive replies. Accused can’t be compelled to make an inculpatory statement.”
The top court granted him bail on a bond of Rs 10 lakh and two sureties.
The Aam Aadmi Party chief was arrested by CBI on 26 June, 2024, while in custody of ED in the money-laundering case arising out of the now scrapped liquor policy. The ED had arrested him on 21 March.
The CBI alleged that the policy was enacted by the Kejriwal-led Delhi government to favour specific liquor manufacturers and traders in the business.
On 12 July, the apex court granted bail to Kejriwal in the ED case, and referred his petition challenging the arrest to a larger bench. But he had to stay in jail as he was under custody of the CBI, which had arrested him just two weeks before the verdict.
The ED had arrested Kejriwal in March, labelling him the “kingpin” of the liquor policy “scam”, who allegedly “colluded with ministers of the Delhi Government” to launder money and engaged in corrupt practices while formulating the scrapped policy.
The chief minister, however, had been allowed a brief reprieve by the Supreme Court in May, when the court gave him interim bail of three weeks to campaign for the Lok Sabha polls.
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