Flashing a substantive milestone, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal in the liquor policy case. The probe agency filed the AAP leader before the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi; they could have executed the exercise before the Lok Sabha polls but did not.
The CBI action comes a day after the agency conducted a search operation at Tihar Jail and recorded Kejriwal’s statement in the Excise Policy case.
Peculiarly, Kejriwal has withdrawn his petition from the Supreme Court that was in response to the order by the Delhi High Court to suspend the execution of the trial court’s bail order.
A vacation bench of the apex court comprising Justices Manoj Misra and SVN Bhatti granted Kejriwal leave to withdraw the petition after Kejriwal’s counsel, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, said he wanted to file a consequential appeal because the high court had passed a detailed order on June 25.
The Delhi High Court, in its order on Tuesday, quashed Kejriwal’s bail order passed by the trial court, stating that at least if the lower court had to pass the impounding order, it should have recorded satisfaction concerning the satisfaction of two conditions of Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The court also witnessed that the vacation judge did not apply his mind to the material documents of ED.
Kejriwal has been in custody since March 21, 2011, excluding the period of Interim Bail granted by the Supreme Court for the elections. This case originates from alleged anomalies in Delhi’s now-nullified 2021-22 excise policy.
