The Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on Friday on the petition filed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking bail and quashing of arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Delhi Excise Policy scam case.
The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan had earlier reserved the verdict on September 5.
Kejriwal has filed two separate petitions before the Apex Court – one challenging the legality of his arrest by CBI and the second seeking bail.
On August 5, the Delhi High Court had rejected Kejriwal’s petitions and asked him to approach the trial court for bail.
Kejriwal moved the top court of the country against this order.
Kejriwal was first arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on March 21 under the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the Delhi liquor policy scam case.
He was consequently arrested by CBI on June 26 in the same matter while he was in judicial custody.
Both the national agencies have alleged that Kejriwal, along with several Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders and others, allegedly committed irregularities during the formulation and execution of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
As per the case, the accused deliberately left loopholes in the Delhi Excise policy 2021-22 in exchange for kickbacks from liquor lobbies. The agencies have further alleged that the funds garnered from this exercise were used to fund the AAP’s election campaign in Goa.
The case is being probed by both the CBI and the ED under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act and PMLA, respectively.
Kejriwal was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court in the ED case.
However, he remained behind bars in the case registered by the CBI.
The Delhi Chief Minister moved the High Court directly for bail instead of moving the trial court first, which is the usual course of action adopted by accused persons.
This point was raised by CBI during the hearing on September 5. CBI further contended that Kejriwal was likely to tamper with evidence and hamper its ongoing probe in the case, if he was released on interim bail. It also claimed that the Delhi High Court would get demoralised if Kejriwal was granted bail.