Delhi High Court dismisses CM Arvind Kejriwal’s plea against arrest by CBI in excise case

The Delhi High Court has dismissed the plea filed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Delhi liquor excise policy scam case and seeking bail. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, currently in judicial custody, had directly approached the HC, challenging the arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and seeking bail. 

A bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said, "It cannot be said that the arrest was without any justifiable reasons or illegal.”

The court also refused to grant bail to Kejriwal but added that he may approach the trial court for relief.  

Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhi, N Hariharan and Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Kejriwal argued that CBI's arrest of the Delhi CM was an "insurance arrest" - made as an afterthought to the interim bail granted by the Supreme Court.

Last week, CBI contended against the bail saying that the "mere filing of chargesheet" did not give the Delhi CM, the right to bail. The premier probe agency called Kejriwal the 'sutradhar' (mastermind) of the scam, adding that without his arrest, "the investigation would not have been completed". 

“There are no orders which have released him on bail. Those are just interim orders. First was for elections, and other is that it may be extended or can be reversed by the constitutional bench. Stay on bail in ED case still continues. It is an interim release dependent on another circumstance of the constitutional bench," argued CBI counsel DP Singh.

As per CBI's chargesheet, Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party received kickbacks of around Rs 90-100 crore ($10.7-11.9 million) through co-accused Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally and Dinesh Arora to make changes to the excise policy 2021-22. 

The chargesheet mentions a meeting between TDP MP K Kavitha, liquor businessman Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy and Kejriwal in 2021 at the CM's office in the Delhi Secretariat. Reddy had reportedly requested Kejriwal to tweak the policy who assured full support to him. 

The money was allegedly used in the 2022 Goa assembly elections where AAP contested against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

Further, the CBI alleged that a cartel was formed between the three stakeholders of the now-scrapped Excise Policy -- liquor manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers -- by violating provisions