In a case of so near, yet so far, although the Supreme Court on July 12 granted interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case lodged by the ED, he will have to stay in jail as the CBI had later arrested him in a related case.
The bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta referred his petition challenging the legality of his arrest by the ED to a larger bench.
The Apex Court while granting interim bail said, “Arvind Kejriwal has suffered incarceration for more than 90 days. He is an elected leader and it is upto him whether he wants to continue in the role or not,” as quoted by Bar and Bench.
The bench referred Kejriwal's petition to a larger bench to examine whether the need or necessity of arrest must be read as a condition into Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The top court also framed three questions related to the power and policy of arrest by the ED.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister will remain in jail despite being granted bail, as the CBI later arrested him in a related corruption case.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 by the ED in the money laundering case. Kejriwal was also arrested by the CBI on June 26 in connection with the corruption case related to the alleged excise policy scam. The matter relates to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government's now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.
While speaking on the Supreme Court granting him interim bail, Delhi Minister Atishi said, “BJP knew that he (Arvind Kejriwal) had been granted bail by the Rouse Avenue Court. They knew that he will get bail by the Supreme Court, too. That is why they hatched another conspiracy, and on the day which the bail hearing was scheduled to come up before the Supreme Court, they made CBI arrest Arvind Kejriwal a day before."
She questioned, “Why was he arrested by the CBI?” Atishi added, "Because if he received bail in the ED case, he would come out of jail and work for the people of Delhi 10 times faster. I would like to tell the BJP today, one after the other - every court in this country has exposed your conspiracy; every court is granting bail to Arvind Kejriwal.”
She added, "I would like to tell the BJP to end your arrogance and stop hatching conspiracy against other parties. Truth can be troubled but not defeated."
(With inputs from agencies)
