NEW DELHI: Rouse Avenue Court's Vacation Judge Amitabh Rawat on Wednesday remanded Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to three-day Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody in the Delhi excise policy case.
The CBI, which physically produced Kejriwal in the Rouse Avenue Court, sought five days of custody to interrogate him in the excise case. He is already in Tihar jail in connection with his alleged involvement, as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him on March 21.
After his court appearance, with the court's permission, the CBI examined him and formally arrested him in the matter. Earlier on Tuesday, the CBI had also questioned him in Tihar jail, where he is in judicial custody in a related money laundering case being probed by the ED.
During Wednesday's hearing, Kejriwal addressed the court personally, asserting his innocence along with other AAP leaders, including Manish Sisodia, implicated in the case. "I am innocent in this case, my lord," he told the judge.
Refusing the CBI's allegation that he blamed Manish Sisodia for the entire case, Kejriwal accused the agency of manipulating media headlines to falsely portray his involvement. "This is completely incorrect," he emphasized.
Senior advocate Vikram Chaudhari, representing Kejriwal, accused the CBI for acting in a biased manner." He is arrested in a case pending since August 2022. Kejriwal is called as a witness once to which he cooperated and never as an accused," he told the Court.
Elaborating on the CBI's role, Chaudhari alleged that the agency had arbitrarily implicated Kejriwal without prior notice.
"It is the grossest abuse of the process of law. They were waiting till I get bail in PMLA case," he said.
In response, CBI's lawyer DP Singh argued that the liquor policy, influenced by the South Group during the COVID-19 peak, was manipulated by the AAP.
The accused, Kejriwal's custody was required, Singh said and argued that as the CM was placing the onus on Manish Sisodia and thereby he needed to be confronted, with other accused persons. "We need to confront him with documents that we have... We are not asking him to admit to something," he said.
Singh also told that the accused was not cooperating in the case to the agency.
"Kejriwal has not been forthcoming so far in his answers to the CBI's queries made prior to his formal arrest earlier today," Singh said.
He also justified the timing of Kejriwal's arrest by the central agency, while replying to a poser by the court about the time of arrest of Kejriwal.
Opposing the remand application, Chaudhari challenged the CBI's failure to specify details during Kejriwal's arrest, arguing that it occurred immediately after his bail in the money laundering case, suggesting the arrest "illegal".
The Delhi Chief Minister, Kejriwal had on Sunday knocked the doors of the Supreme Court challenging the Friday's Delhi High Court's order staying his bail, in the Delhi Excise case.
Delhi High Court's Vacation bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain, had on Tuesday in its order allowed the ED's appeal and stayed the trial court's order of granting Kejriwal the bail in the case.
On Thursday, June 20, in a major relief to Kejriwal, Rouse Avenue Court's Vacation Judge, in New Delhi, Niyay Bindu, passed the order, and had granted him bail in the Delhi liquor case.
Kejriwal is the prime accused in the now scrapped Delhi liquor case. The court granted Kejriwal bail after directing him to furnish a personal bail bond of Rs 1 lakh.
On June 5, Delhi's same court Judge Kaveri Baweja rejected Kejriwal's bail plea on the ground that his involvement in the crime could not be ruled out.
The ED had told the Court that he was the mastermind and main conspirator in the Delhi liquor case. "We have all the evidence against him,"the ASG Raju told the court.
A day after his plea was rejected by the Delhi High Court on April 9, Kejriwal had on April 10 moved the Supreme Court against the dismissal of plea of his arrest and remand in the case.
The accused, Kejriwal claimed innocence in the liquor gate scam case and had told the Court, during the hearings that the timing of his arrest right after the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is to humiliate, insult, and disable him and his political party.
The ASG Raju said that there are sufficient evidences against him and he is the main criminal conspirator in the Delhi liquor scam case.
Earlier on May 10, the Supreme Court in its order granted bail to Kejriwal till June 01 to participate in election campaigns, and asked him to surrender on June 02, while imposing certain conditions on him. He was in Tihar jail since March 21, for his alleged involvement in the Delhi liquor case.
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