New Delhi:

Bail or no bail? That is the question the Supreme Court will answer this morning as it rules on a plea by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal following his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation in June, in the alleged liquor excise policy scam.

Should it rule in his favour, Mr Kejriwal will be released nearly six months after he was first arrested – by the Enforcement Directorate – and two months after getting bail for that arrest.

The Aam Aadmi Party boss could not leave then – on July 12 – as he had been arrested by the CBI just a few weeks earlier, after the ED dropped its challenge, in connection with the same case.

In various forums since, including in the Supreme Court in this round of petitions, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Mr Kejriwal criticised that second arrest as an “insurance”, arguing it was designed to keep the AAP leader in jail, and his party on edge, before February’s Delhi election.

Last week, in the final hearing before the court withdrew to decide, he pointed out his client had already satisfied the ‘triple test’ legal principle for bail, since the same court had given him bail in the ED case.

READ | Big Supreme Court Relief For Arvind Kejriwal In Delhi Liquor Policy Case

The CBI has repeatedly pointed to what it believes is a mountain of evidence against Mr Kejriwal, most of which is drawn from testimony of ‘approvers’, i.e., former accused who have been pardoned, or will receive lesser sentences, for testifying against the Chief Minister.

The agency, like the ED, believes Mr Kejriwal played a key role in drafting and clearing the controversial November 2021 liquor excise policy, which was withdrawn eight months later.

The court, though, waved away an appeal by the CBI – that releasing Mr Kejriwal now, after he had been denied relief by the High Court – would “demoralise” that forum. “Don’t say that…” a bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Surya Kant, who will deliver today’s verdict, had said.

READ | “Don’t Say…”: Top Court On CBI’s Argument Against Bail For Kejriwal

It did, however, express concern over agencies seeming to rely on ‘approvers’ to make their case; in releasing Telangana politician K Kavitha, another accused in this case, it noted “You have to be fair… a person who incriminates himself is made a witness? What is this fairness?”

READ | “What Is This ‘Fairness’?” Top Court To Agencies In Liquor Policy Case

The run-up to this verdict has also seen the Supreme Court highlight the ‘bail is the rule, jail is the exception’ principle, laid down in 1977 by Justice Krishna Iyer, in connection with other cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, under which Mr Kejriwal faces charges.

The court has previously also reasoned that provisions for bail in the PMLA – under Section 45 of the law, which sets out two additional conditions for release – cannot overturn the primacy of an individual’s right to liberty. The note has been interpreted by many to mean there can be no argument to deny bail to a money-laundering accused, assuming other conditions are met.

After Singh, Sisodia, Kavitha, Next Kejriwal?

If he does get bail now, Mr Kejriwal will be the fifth, and most high-profile, opposition leader to leave jail after being arrested in this case. Three of those released so far are his former deputy, Manish Sisodia, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, and K Kavitha. The fifth was AAP leader Durgesh Pathak.

The three big names were released by the Supreme Court, which noted, in each case that authorities could not hold accused persons in prison indefinitely and without trial; in Mr Sisodia’s case last month the court called out the “travesty of justice” and flagged violation of a citizen’s right to liberty.

READ | “Travesty Of Justice”: Sisodia Gets Bail, Supreme Court Slams Delay

In April, while releasing Mr Singh, the court asked the arresting agency, the ED, why he had been jailed for six months without a trial and also pointed out it had failed to recover any of the Rs 2 crore he allegedly received as a bribe.

READ | “Just Because Woman Is Educated…”: Top Court As K Kavitha Gets Bail

Also last month, while releasing Ms Kavitha, the Supreme Court, once again, observed the Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader could not remain in jail if “likelihood trial in near future is impossible”.

Delhi Liquor Policy Case Explained

The Delhi liquor excise policy case involves allegations that Mr Kejriwal and the AAP received kickbacks of Rs 100 crore, including significant payments from a ‘South group’ led by Ms Kavitha, for allotment of wholesale licences. The ED and CBI believe this money was then used by the AAP to fund election campaigns, including that for the 2022 Goa Assembly election.

NDTV Explains | In Liquor Case, 193 Cr Profits, Kickback For AAP, Says ED, CBI

Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP, and Ms Kavitha and her party, the BRS of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, have denied all charges, and counter-accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, to whom federal agencies like the ED and CBI report, of mounting a campaign against its critics and opposition leaders, particularly before elections.

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court has granted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal bail in a money-laundering case by the Enforcement Directorate linked to the Delhi liquor policy. But Mr Kejriwal will remain in jail as he is currently being questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a separate case.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta delivered the judgment. Mr Kejriwal has suffered incarceration for over 90 days, the court said while granting him interim bail in excise policy case filed by ED.

The AAP the Supreme Court ruling saying “satyamev jayate” (Truth alone triumphs).

“Satyamev Jayate (truth alone triumphs)”, the party posted on X (formerly Twitter9 in Hindi along with a picture of Mr Kejriwal holding the national flag.

सत्यमेव जयते pic.twitter.com/dG5o2eHB0l

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) July 12, 2024

Mr Kejriwal, also the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief, was arrested on March 21 by the ED in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam.

In his petition, the 55-year-old had challenged the April 9 order of the Delhi High Court refusing to grant him relief.

The high court had upheld Mr Kejriwal’s arrest in the case, saying there was no illegality about it and that the central probe agency was left with “little option” after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation.

Both the ED and CBI is probing the money laundering angle in the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy.

Under the excise policy, introduced in November 2021, the Delhi government withdrew from the retail sale of liquor and allowed private licensees to run stores. In July 2022, Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar flagged gross violations in the policy and alleged “undue benefits” to liquor licensees. The policy was scrapped in September that year.

The CBI has alleged that liquor companies were involved in framing the excise policy, which would have earned them a 12% profit. It said a liquor lobby dubbed the “South Group” had paid kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore to the AAP, part of which was routed to public servants. The Enforcement Directorate has alleged laundering of the kickbacks.

New Delhi:

The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday claimed there are apprehensions that the Enforcement Directorate will arrest Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on November 2 after questioning him in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam.  

The ruling party in Delhi also alleged that the BJP was trying to finish it off by putting its top leaders behind bars.

Mr Kejriwal has been issued the summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and according to sources, the ED will record his statement once he deposes at the probe agency’s Delhi office at 11 am on November 2.

This is the first time that Mr Kejriwal has been summoned by the ED. He was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the case in April.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Delhi Cabinet Minister Atishi claimed the BJP was using these tactics to target the AAP as it knows that it cannot defeat Kejriwal in elections.

“There are reports that Kejriwal will be arrested on November 2. If he is arrested, it won’t be because of corruption (charges) but because he has spoken against the BJP,” she said.

“The AAP defeated the BJP in Delhi Assembly polls twice and also in MCD polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scared of AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal. The BJP knows they cannot defeat the AAP in elections.”

Referring to the arrest of the AAP’s top leadership, including Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Satyendar Jain, Atishi claimed it only means that the BJP wants to finish off the AAP.  Satyendar Jain has been granted bail in a money laundering case.

“After Kejriwal is arrested, the BJP will target other leaders of the INDIA alliance and its chief ministers using the CBI and ED.

“Next they will target Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren since they have been unable to defeat him. Then they will target Tejashwi Yadav since they have not been able to break the alliance in Bihar. Then Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin will be targeted,” she claimed.  

Atishi reiterated that AAP leaders are not scared of going to jail and will keep fighting to save the Constitution till their last breath.

AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj echoed Atishi’s views and asserted that the party has only grown stronger in the face of opposition.

“The BJP is trying to put Arvind Kejriwal and other top leaders of the AAP behind bars. Whenever attempts have been made to suppress and finish off the Aam Aadmi Party, it has only emerged stronger,” he said.

The AAP’s Delhi state convener Gopal Rai also addressed a press conference and said that the party will keep working for the common man.  

“There have been attacks in the past too and we have only grown stronger. They want to arrest Arvind Kejriwal since they want to finish off the Aam Aadmi Party. They tried to break AAP MLAs by lodging more than 170 cases against them but failed. The AAP is not working for itself but for the common man,” he asserted.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:
The Supreme Court heard two separate bail requests of former Delhi Deputy Chief and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Minister Manish Sisodia in the liquor policy case being probed by the CBI, and a money laundering case by the Enforcement Directorate.

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