Earlier today, the CBI also filed its final chargesheet against Kejriwal. The CBI informed the same to the Delhi High Court and claimed that Arvind Kejriwal is the central figure or “sutradhar” in the excise policy scam.
In the hearing, the agency counsel stated that Arvind Kejriwal, as the head of the cabinet, signed the excise policy, circulated it to his colleagues, and received their signatures within a single day. This occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CBI counsel further submitted that C. Aravind, an IAS officer under Manish Sisodia, testified that Vijay Nair brought a copy of the excise policy to be entered into the computer, and Arvind Kejriwal was present at that time. This, according to the CBI, indicates Kejriwal’s direct involvement in the matter.
The CBI arrested Kejriwal on June 26 from Tihar jail, where he was already in judicial custody until July 3 in a money-laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).It is to be noted that the Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court had extended the CBI’s judicial custody of the Chief Minister till August 8 in the said case. The AAP supremo, earlier this month, had filed a plea and said that the probe agency had failed to present any new material after June 4 to justify the investigation or arrest.
He had also challenged the June 26 order of the trial court which granted the CBI three-day remand.
Earlier, Kejriwal had said that his arrest by the CBI in the alleged excise policy scam was an “insurance arrest”.
“It is unfortunately an insurance arrest. I have effectively three release orders in my favour (in ED case) under very stringent provisions… These orders show that the man is entitled to be released. He would have been released but for this insurance arrest,” argued senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing on behalf of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener, before Justice Neena Bansal Krishna.
A relief for the arrested Chief Minister came earlier this month when the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in relation to the same liquor policy case.
Kejriwal has been jailed since March 21 in the money laundering case and is under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
