Supreme Court Grants Bail to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in Excise Policy Case

The Supreme Court has granted interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi Excise Policy case. CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat welcomed the decision but criticized the central government for keeping Kejriwal in judicial custody in a CBI case, calling it a manipulation.

Brinda Karat stated, “We welcome this order of the Supreme Court releasing the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on bail. Though he has got relief and bail order from the Supreme Court in the substantive case, due to the vindictive attitude of the central government, a sitting Chief Minister will continue to be in jail because of the manipulation of this case by the government by arresting him in the CBI case, which is extremely unfortunate in a travesty of justice.”

AAP leader Priyanka Kakkar also criticized the Enforcement Directorate for bias and lack of evidence. She said, “BJP adopted many tricks to stop the work of Delhi. This entire liquor scam was written in the BJP office. PMLA court said that there is no evidence against Arvind Kejriwal. ED could not find any evidence and it seems that ED is working with bias. This is also written in that order. Today, many thanks to the court that they granted bail to Arvind Kejriwal. We hope that bail will be granted soon in the CBI matter as well.”

The Supreme Court questioned the ED’s policy on arrests under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta referred to the official data available on the ED’s website regarding its cases and said, “The data raises a number of questions, including the question whether the ED has formulated a policy when they should arrest a person involved in offences committed under the PML Act.”

Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 in connection with a money laundering probe relating to alleged irregularities in the now-cancelled Delhi excise policy 2021-22.