NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India has deferred till September 5 the hearing on Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s pleas seeking bail and challenging his arrest by the CBI in the alleged excise policy scam. A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan granted the CBI time to file a counter affidavit and gave Kejriwal two days to submit a rejoinder.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing Kejriwal, pointed out that the CBI had filed a counter affidavit in only one of the pleas and served it to them at 8 pm on Thursday.Additional Solicitor General SV Raju mentioned that the counter affidavit for the other plea would be filed within a week. The bench then scheduled the next hearing for September 5.
On August 14, the Supreme Court declined to grant interim bail to Kejriwal in the case and requested a response from the CBI regarding his challenge to the arrest. Kejriwal was taken into custody by the CBI on June 26.
Kejriwal, who had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21, was initially granted bail by a trial court in the money laundering case on June 20. However, the bail order was subsequently stayed by the high court. On July 12, the Supreme Court granted him interim bail in the money laundering case.
The excise policy under scrutiny was scrapped in 2022 following an order by the Delhi lieutenant governor for a CBI investigation into alleged irregularities and corruption related to its formulation and execution. According to the CBI and ED, there were irregularities in modifying the excise policy and undue favours were extended to licence holders.