Delhi High Court upholds CBI arrest of Arvind Kejriwal; asks him to move trial court for bail

The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to quash Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy case. .Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said that there were adequate grounds to arrest Kejriwal."It cannot be said that the arrest was without any justiciable reason," the Court said while rejecting the plea to quash the arrest.However, the Court granted liberty to Kejriwal to approach trial court for bail.Kejriwal had approached the High Court directly for bail.The High Court, however, refused to decide the same today on merits instead asking the CM to move trial court."So far as bail application is concerned it is disposed of with liberty to approach the trial court," the single-judge directed..The CBI arrested Kejriwal on June 26, while he was in judicial custody in connection with a money laundering case probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).He was later granted interim bail by the Supreme Court in the ED case but he continued to remain in jail since he is yet to get bail in the CBI case.Kejriwal filed two separate petitions before the High Court - one seeking bail and another challenging his arrest by the CBI in case..Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for Kejriwal and argued that his arrest by the CBI was an "insurance arrest" and was done because the central agency felt that Kejriwal might get relief in money laundering case initiated by Enforcement Directorate. "I have, effectively, three release orders in my favour under very, very stringent provisions. First is the interim bail order by the Supreme Court to campaign during elections. The second is the recent interim bail. It is indefinite unconditional relief. One is the order from the trial court which has been stayed by the High Court," Singhvi said. It was the Delhi Chief Minister's case that his arrest was in cviolation of the statutory mandate prescribed under Section 41 and 60A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).Singhvi contended that the CBI had registered the FIR in the case in August 2022 but the arrest was happening after nearly two years.It was also pointed out that Kejriwal was already under judicial custody when he was arrested by CBI and hence, there could be no fear of him tampering with evidence or witnesses or posing any danger or flight risk..CBI's Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) DP Singh countered the allegation that Kejriwal's arrest was an "insurance arrest". He said that new material had come to light which necessitated his arrest. "Supreme Court granted him interim bail on May 10 for the purpose of campaigning for elections only. My way of looking at it is that there is no bar on me to arrest him. He came out on bail in the ED case. I could've arrested him on that day only... That could be something which can be called overreaching. I being a responsible agency, decided to wait," Singh said.Later after he got bail from trial court in ED case, CBI did not arrest him."The order of stay (by Delhi High Court) on his bail in ED case was to be pronounced on June 25. Only after this order came did we arrest him. If it was an insurance arrest, I could have arrested him before the High Court order. It would have raised eyebrows but I only arrested him when this court gave a complete stay on his bail. We cannot deal with what would happen and what will not happen. If he had been granted interim bail, even then I could have arrested him," the SSP argued.