Double Trouble: After ED, CBI arrests Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in excise policy case

The CBI, on Wednesday, formally arrested Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi excise policy case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), who presented Kejriwal in the Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court on Wednesday, said that it could have done the exercise before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections but it didn’t.

On Tuesday evening, the CBI examined Kejriwal in Delhi’s Tihar Jail and recorded his statement related to the Excise Policy case. The probe agency then sought his production before the trial court on June 26.

Kejriwal has been lodged in the Tihar Jail ever since he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case on March 21.

On Wednesday, Kejriwal’s counsel Vivek Jain said that he was not informed about the CBI moving an application before the court and securing an order to question him.

“We got to know about this through media. We were not given the application (by CBI) or the order passed (by court),” Advocate Jain said on behalf of Delhi CM.

“The manner in which this has been done is of grave concern. Please allow us the access to the documents and defer this hearing to tomorrow,” Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari, who also appeared for Kejriwal, said.

Special Judge Amitabh Rawat, on Wednesday, said Kejriwal will be given copies of the CBI’s plea seeking his custodial interrogation and the order passed on June 24 by which the agency was allowed to examine him in Tihar Jail.

Also Read: CBI questions Arvind Kejriwal in Tihar jail; SC to hear his bail plea today

Meanwhile, the CBI maintained that investigation is the prerogative of agency and the law does not mandate that the accused should be informed.

“The law does not say that I have to tell them when I want to go and investigate him. The same thing happened in the case of K Kavitha. I only need court’s permission. I am seeking permission because he is in my lord’s custody. To investigate or not is my prerogative,” CBI counsel DP Singh said.

“Since the accused was in judicial custody they sought permission to question him. He has not been formally arrested so far,” the Court said.

“We were not given any opportunity. We are saying we will file a response to their application of remand. Heavens will not fall if we file a reply,” Kejriwal’s lawyer Chaudhari said.

Case in which CBI has arrested Kejriwal

The case against Kejriwal stems from allegations of irregularities in Delhi’s now-scrapped excise policy of 2021-22, which the CBI began probing following a recommendation by Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena in July 2022.

Kejriwal is accused of being part of a conspiracy to intentionally leave behind loopholes in the policy to benefit certain liquor sellers. The kickbacks received from this arrangement are alleged to have be used by AAP to fund the party’s campaigning in Goa elections.

The ED’s money laundering probe stemmed from the case registered by the CBI on August 17, 2022, in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy.

Though the CBI registered the case, the ED was the first to arrest Kejriwal.

He was granted bail by the trial court in the ED case on June 20, but the Delhi High Court stayed the same on June 25.

With inputs from agencies