New Delhi: Nearly two years after it started proceedings in the case of alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi excise policy 2021-22, by registering an FIR against then Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to file a chargesheet against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The chargesheet, expected to be filed by the last week of July, will be the second such document directly against Kejriwal, who has also been chargesheeted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering probe arising from this case.
Kejriwal is in judicial custody of the CBI after the agency had, on 26 June, formally arrested him.
He has been in jail since 21 March when the ED arrested him in the money laundering case. He was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court for three weeks during the Lok Sabha elections for campaigning.
Both agencies have maintained that Kejriwal was the “kingpin” and “key architect” of the Delhi excise policy that allegedly benefitted few players who, in return, paid kickbacks to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The CBI, so far, has filed a total three chargesheets in the case and the ED has filed eight, with the last one against Kejriwal and AAP.
Also read: ED should adhere to ‘uniform’ policy for arrest under PMLA — what SC said on Kejriwal’s plea
Back and forth in court
The CBI arrested Kejriwal the same day the Supreme Court was all set to hear his plea challenging the stay by Delhi HC of a trial court order granting him bail. After his arrest, Kejriwal withdrew his plea from the apex court.
The vacation judge Justice Niyay Bindu of the Rouse Avenue Court in her 20 June order had said that there was a lack of “direct evidence” against Delhi CM and that there was “nothing on record” to prove Vijay Nair, former campaign manager of the AAP, worked at Kejriwal’s behest.
The judge had also questioned the untraced Rs 60 crore — of the Rs 100 crore alleged to be proceeds of crime — and the agency’s lack of explanation for its claim that said proceeds were utilised during Goa assembly polls while giving bail to Kejriwal.
Following this, the ED had moved the Delhi HC to stay the bail order and the single judge bench of Justice Sudhir Jail temporarily put on hold the bail order of Kejriwal till it heard it in full, and then stayed it formally on 25 June while hearing plea of the agency.
Relief in ED case, in jail in CBI case
The trial court judge Niyay Bindu had also taken a leaf out of SC’s interim bail order passed in May to say that the AAP chief does not have any “criminal antecedents” and also his challenge against his arrest on 21 March by the ED was pending at that time before the apex court.
Passing an order on Kejriwal’s challenge to ED’s arrest, the two judge bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sanjiv Khanna granted him interim relief while referring the onus of judgment on ED’s “need of arrest” under section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 to a larger bench.
Although the top court said that Kejriwal’s arrest met the parameters of Section 19 of the PMLA, which relates to power of arrest, it raised an additional question related to “need and necessity of arrest” and whether that can be read as grounds of arrest under the section.
The bench also made it explicitly clear that “mere interrogation” cannot be the ground to arrest someone and that it was necessary to determine whether “need and necessity” can be a reason to arrest under PMLA.
Senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who has appeared for Kejriwal at all levels of courts in this case, said that CBI’s arrest of the Delhi CM was an “insurance arrest” because they had an idea that the SC was set to deliver an “adverse judgment” to their liking.
Kejriwal will continue to be in jail despite getting interim bail in the ED’s case against him as he is in judicial custody of the CBI. The Special CBI Judge Kaveri Baweja Friday extended his judicial custody in CBI’s case till 25 July.
Also read: After HC stays Kejriwal’s bail, lawyers flag judge’s conflict of interest, ‘unprecedented practices’