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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has moved the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s decision to dismiss his plea to quash his arrest in connection with the CBI probe into the GST policy fraud case. Kejriwal has also filed an application seeking bail in the ongoing CBI case.
The Delhi High Court had earlier dismissed Kejriwal’s challenge to the arrest and advised him to apply for bail from the trial court. While dismissing Kejriwal’s challenge to the arrest, the High Court said that the prosecution explained that considering Kejriwal was the Chief Minister of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, the police acted cautiously and started collecting evidence from other suspected accused. As a result, the police conducted extensive investigations across India to identify the entire conspiracy network involving many people.
In a complaint filed in the Delhi High Court, Chief Minister Kejriwal said he, the national convener of the Indian National Party (AJP) and the sitting chief minister of Delhi, was being subjected to “serious persecution and harassment motivated entirely by ill-intentioned and irrelevant considerations”.
The court noted that the investigating agency further explained that it was only after collecting sufficient material against the petitioner over a period of one and a half years that they sought approval for prosecution against the petitioner, which was granted on April 23, 2024. Therefore, the CBI had well explained the reason for not taking immediate action against the petitioner after registering the FIR and there was no malice involved.
The court further said that it was “correct and true” that the petitioner in the present case was not an ordinary citizen of the country but a distinguished recipient of the Magsaysay Award and the convener of the Popular Party.
“His control and influence over the witnesses is prima facie proven by the fact that these witnesses found the courage to testify only after the arrest of the complainant, as highlighted by the special prosecutor. Moreover, it also shows that the evidentiary cycle against the complainant was closed after the relevant evidence was collected after his arrest. No malice can be discerned from the accused’s conduct,” the court noted.
While ruling on Kejriwal’s bail plea, Delhi High Court Justice Nina Bansal said that in the present case, considering the complexity and network of facts and material on record, it would be more in favour of the applicant to fully ascertain the role played by the applicant in this alleged conspiracy to determine whether he is entitled to bail.
“It is also pertinent to note that when the bail application was filed before this court, the charge sheet had not been filed. However, in the event of a change of circumstances, when the charge sheet has been filed before the special judge, it would be in the best interest of the petitioner to first approach the circuit judge,” Justice Nina Bansal said.
Earlier on August 9, former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Manish Sisodia was released from Tihar jail after the Supreme Court granted him bail for nearly 18 months in a case related to Delhi’s GST policy.
With input from ANI
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