Delhi HC seeks CBI’s response to Arvind Kejriwal’s bail plea; next hearing on July 17

The Delhi high court on Friday sought the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s response within a week to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea for bail in the scrapped excise policy case and fixed July 17 as the next date for hearing in the matter.

A bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna initially agreed with CBI’s submission that Kejriwal should have filed a plea before the trial court first. It later issued a notice saying the contention regarding Kejriwal directly approaching the high court would be considered at the time of arguments.

Kejriwal filed the fresh plea after the high court sought CBI’s response to his petition challenging his arrest by the probe agency and the remand. On Tuesday, a bench of Justice Krishna directed CBI to file its response within seven days and listed the matter for July 17 after Kejriwal’s legal team pressed for the issuance of notice asserting that there was no need or necessity to arrest him.

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Kejriwal’s plea said his arrest by CBI was an attempt to scuttle, obviate, and prevent his release from custody in the Enforcement Department (ED)’s money laundering case. A Delhi court on June 20 granted him bail in that case citing a lack of direct evidence. On June 25, a vacation bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain stayed the bail saying that the order for it was perverse and was passed without appreciating ED’s material.

Kejriwal’s bail petition said he was being subjected to gross persecution and harassment for wholly malafide and extraneous considerations. It added that the material based on which he was arrested was on record and his arrest 1 year, 10 months after the registration of the case smacks of “glaring malafide.”

During the hearing on Friday, Kejriwal’s legal team comprising senior advocates Abhishek Singhvi, Vikram Chaudhari, and N Hariharan urged the high court to issue a notice saying that the four co-accused were granted bail in the CBI case. The lawyers pointed out that CBI arrested Kejriwal after he got bail in the ED case in violation of Sections 41 and 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Section 41 allows police to make arrests with a warrant or permission from a magistrate in cases where they fear it is necessary to prevent a person from committing a further offence or for proper investigation. Section 41A mandates police to issue notice to the person accused of committing an offence before arrest without a warrant.

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Special public prosecutor DP Singh, who represented CBI, opposed the issuance of the notice saying Kejriwal approached the high court directly bypassing the trial court. He stressed Kejriwal should first file the plea before the trial court so that the high court has the benefit of its order.

Justice Krishna remarked that Singh was right. “You can also have the benefit of sessions judge hearing first. It is not a question of competence.”

In response, Chaudhari argued that the high court did not have to direct Kejriwal to approach the trial court as the high court was considering the petition challenging his arrest and remand. He added the trial court had shot down contention on the aspect of violation of CrPC Section 41A.

The court asked CBI to file its response, but remarked there must be strong ground for Kejriwal to directly approach it for bail notwithstanding its concurrent jurisdiction to hear the bail applications. “In how many matters has the Supreme Court said that please go back to the trial court on propriety and not law? The law is clear. We have concurrent jurisdiction. The Supreme Court has said not to clog the higher courts when the remedy is available to you. These are all concurrent jurisdictions. I am not on law. There must be some reason why you come to HC directly,” Justice Krishna said.

The CBI had arrested Kejriwal on June 26 after the federal agency briefly questioned him. On June 29, a Delhi court sent him to 14-day judicial custody until July 12.

In the remand note, the agency alleged that Kejriwal is “one of the main conspirators of the criminal conspiracy”. It said that Vijay Nair, a former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) functionary, contacted liquor manufacturers and traders and demanded undue gratification.