New Delhi, Jul 29 (PTI) Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was the “sutradhaar” of the excise ‘scam’, the CBI on Monday told the Delhi High Court which reserved its order on the bail plea of the AAP chief in a corruption case linked to the alleged scam.
The investigating agency opposed Kejriwal’s bail application before Justice Neena Bansal Krishna and said there was evidence to show his involvement in the offence.
“The investigation could not have been concluded without his arrest. Within a month we filed the charge sheet…After his arrest, we got evidence. His own party workers came out to answer,” said CBI’s counsel D P Singh, adding that a final charge sheet has been filed in the trial court.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, contended that the arrest was an “insurance arrest” to ensure that he does not come out of jail.
He emphasised that there was no direct evidence against the AAP chief and the investigating agency apprehended him based on presumptions and hypothesis.
Asserting that the excise policy was an institutional decision which was also signed off by the Delhi lieutenant governor (LG) after it went through several committees, Singhvi remarked that the other persons who were involved in the process should also be made co-accused.
“15 others also signed it. The LG signed it…By his (Singh’s) own logic, they should make him an accused,” Singhvi said.
He argued that there was no recovery from Kejriwal and the case against him was based on presumptions and hypothesis.
The CBI’s counsel also raised objections with respect to Kejriwal directly approaching the high court for bail and asserted that if released, there was possibility of influencing of witnesses by the chief minister.
Earlier in the day, the CBI filed its final charge sheet in the trial court against the chief minister and five others, including AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak.
The federal probe agency had earlier filed a main charge sheet and four supplementaries in the case in which former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Telangana MLC K Kavitha and 15 others have also been charged.
In the fresh charge sheet, the CBI has named Kejriwal, Pathak, non-executive director of Aurobindo Pharma P Sarath Chandra Reddy, director of Buddy Retail Pvt Ltd Amit Arora, alleged hawala operator Vinod Chauhan and businessman Ashish Mathur as accused.
The CBI has also claimed that kickbacks of around Rs 90-100 crore were paid in advance to some politicians of the ruling AAP in Delhi and other public servants by some persons in the liquor business from South India through co-accused Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally and Dinesh Arora to tweak the 2021-22 Excise Policy.
Kejriwal was arrested by the CBI on June 26 from Tihar Jail while he was lodged in judicial custody in a connected money laundering case filed by the ED.
The court’s verdict on his petition challenging the arrest by the CBI is awaited.
The chief minister, who was arrested by the ED on March 21, was granted bail by a trial court in the money laundering case on June 20.
However, the trial court’s order was stayed by the high court. On July 12, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the money laundering case.
The excise policy was scrapped in 2022 after the Delhi lieutenant governor ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities and corruption involving the formulation and execution of the policy.
According to the CBI and the ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours extended to licence holders. PTI ADS ADS KVK KVK
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