CBI questions maintainability of Kejriwal’s bail plea in SC

New Delhi: Questioning the maintainability of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s pleas seeking bail and challenging his arrest, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday told the Supreme Court that he should have first approached the trial court for bail in the corruption case linked to the alleged excise policy scam.

Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the central agency, submitted before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan that even in the money laundering case, Kejriwal, who had challenged his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), was sent back by the apex court to the trial court. “He has approached Delhi High Court directly without going to sessions court. Under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), both have concurrent jurisdiction.

My preliminary objection is he must first go to trial court,” Raju said. The law officer said the CBI did not issue a notice to Kejriwal under section Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure as he was already in judicial custody. Earlier in the day, Kejriwal told the top court that the CBI did not arrest him for nearly two years in the alleged excise policy scam and an “insurance arrest” was made on June 26 after he got bail in the “harsher” money laundering case filed by the ED.

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the chief minister, told the bench that no notice was served to Kejriwal by the CBI before his arrest and an ex-parte arrest order was passed by the trial court. Seeking bail for the beleaguered Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, Singhvi submitted that Kejriwal is a constitutional functionary and not a flight risk.

Singhvi said Kejriwal was also not named in the CBI FIR. The senior lawyer pointed out that the top court, while granting him interim bail in the money laundering case, had said the chief minister was not a threat to society.

“What started in August 2023 has led to arrest in March this year in the money laundering case,” he said, adding the top court and a trial court have already granted him bail.

Kejriwal had a “preconceived” plan to privatise liquor business in the national capital and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) benefited from illicit funds it raised through the excise policy “scam”, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged before a special court here.