Delhi excise policy case: SC to deliver verdict today on Arvind Kejriwal’s pleas seeking bail, challenging arrest

Opposing the plea, the CBI had told the Supreme Court that witnesses from Goa, including those who contested the Assembly elections on an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket, would turn hostile if Kejriwal walked out of jail.

Kejriwal has filed two separate petitions challenging the denial of bail and against his arrest by the CBI in the case. He has challenged the August 5 order of the Delhi High Court upholding his arrest.

The central probe agency said that there is also a Punjab angle to the matter and that the ruling AAP government in the state is not granting permission to probe it and said that Kejriwal “is influencing the non-granting of permission”.

In the trial court last month, the CBI had claimed that a big chunk of the bribe money from the excise policy scam was used by AAP in the Goa Assembly polls in 2022.

“There are a number of witnesses (in the case) including Aam Aadmi Party candidates in Goa who stood for the elections, persons who took the money, and which was distributed in Goa,” the CBI said. “They never came to give statements as long as he was not arrested. After he was arrested, they gave statements. They were avoiding giving statements. Now, after he comes out, all those witnesses will turn hostile,” the CBI further submitted.

Explaining the Punjab angle, the CBI said, “There is a distributor called Mahadev Liquors. He had a wholesale licence, but he was not willing to pay the bribes or part of the bribe. So there was arm-twisting… Excise offices with ulterior motives closed down his distilleries in Punjab. So when he went to the excise department (and asked) why have you closed down, why have you passed an order shutting down my distilleries, he was told your problem doesn’t lie here, your problem lies in Delhi… Finally, he surrendered his licence. The moment he surrendered his wholesale licence, permission was granted to restart the distilleries… The CBI wanted to investigate that angle…”.

Appearing for Kejriwal, Senior Advocate A M Singhvi said that the AAP leader, being “a constitutional functionary, cannot be a flight risk” and that there is no risk of tampering with the evidence which is documentary in nature and has already been collected.

Singhvi also referred to what the Supreme Court said while granting bail to former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in the excise policy cases. The court, he pointed out, had said, “Now, relegating the appellant (Sisodia) to again approach the trial court and thereafter the High Court and only thereafter this Court, in our view, would be making him play a game of “Snake and Ladder”.”

Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 in the money laundering case linked to the excise case. On June 26, he was formally arrested by the CBI in the corruption case linked to the alleged scam. He was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court in the money laundering case on July 12 and is currently in judicial custody in the CBI’s corruption case.