Supreme Court seeks CBI response to Arvind Kejriwal plea for bail, quashing of arrest

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the response of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the plea filed by jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to quash his arrest by the agency in connection with the Delhi excise policy case and to release him on bail [Arvind Kejriwal v Central Bureau of Investigation]..A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan refused to grant interim bail but posted the matter for hearing on August 23."We are not granting any interim bail. We issue notice," the Court said. "Please keep it next week," Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi requested on behalf of Kejriwal. "List on August 23," the Court said..The Delhi High Court had on August 5 refused Kejriwal's plea in that regard, and asked him to approach trial court for bail. This has led to the instant appeal by Kejriwal before the apex court..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) in connection with the same scam. He and other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders are accused of hatching a criminal conspiracy to create loopholes in the Delhi Excise Policy to favour some liquor sellers. The investigation agencies have alleged that the funds garnered from this exercise were used to fund the AAP's election campaign in Goa.He was first arrested by ED on March 26, but was later granted interim bail by the Supreme Court in the ED case. However, he continues to remain in jail since he is yet to get bail in the CBI case.Kejriwal had filed two separate petitions before the High Court - one seeking bail and another challenging his arrest by the CBI. The High Court rejected the plea to quash the arrest.Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said that there were adequate grounds to arrest Kejriwal.As regards bail, the Court did not pronounce on the merits but asked Kejriwal to move the trial court instead.Kejriwal had approached the High Court directly for bail.Kejriwal has challenged both these aspects before the Supreme Court.In his plea seeking bail, Kejriwal has said the High Court abdicated its function by relegating the matter to the trial though it has concurrent jurisdiction to decide the bail plea.The Supreme Court had recently granted bail to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, in connection with the same case.It had taken critical note of the fact that High Courts and trial courts appeared to be "playing it safe" when they routinely deny bail in criminal cases instead of granting bail as the norm.