Excise policy case: Respond to Kejriwal's bail plea, Delhi HC tells CBI

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing Kejriwal, said the AAP leader is not a flight risk and not a terrorist and the CBI arrested him after he got bail in the ED's money laundering case.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice to the CBI on a plea filed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking bail in the case related to liquor policy scam.

A bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna sought a response from the CBI and put the matter for consideration on July 17.

The CBI opposed the plea by Kejriwal contending he has directly approached the High Court without first filing the bail application before the trial court.

The High Court, however, said it required strong grounds to approach it directly for bail, even though it shared jurisdiction to hear bail petitions.

"In how many matters has the Supreme Court said go to trial court on propriety? Law is clear, we have the concurrent jurisdiction. The Supreme Court has said don't clog the higher courts when the remedy is available to you. There must be some reason why you come to High Court directly," the court observed.

Senior advocates A M Singhvi and Vikram Chaudhari, appearing for Kejriwal, said there are numerous judgments in favour of the petitioner, this court was already seized of the challenge to the legality of the arrest.

The counsel said four people have already been granted bail and the applicant was arrested after two years.

Chaudhari said Section 41A of the CrPC was violated in the arrest, so going to the trial court would be a futile exercise.

The CBI arrested Kejriwal on June 26 and conducted three days of custodial interrogation.

He was on June 29 remanded to judicial custody till July 12. He was first arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 in a money laundering case lodged on August 22, 2022 in connection with the scam.

He was already in judicial custody in the ED case when the CBI arrested him.

The CBI claimed Kejriwal evaded questions on transfer and utilisation of ill-gotten money to the tune of Rs 44.54 crore for the Goa assembly elections by his party during 2021-22.

It also contended he was a prominent politician and could influence witnesses or tamper with evidence.