Excise policy case: Will Arvind Kejriwal walk out of jail? SC to deliver verdict on AAP leader's bail plea today

The Supreme Court today is scheduled to deliver its verdict on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's petitions seeking bail and challenging his arrest by the CBI in the excise policy 'scam'. As per the cause list of September 13 uploaded on the apex court website, a bench headed by Justice Surya Kant is slated to pronounce the verdict.

The bench, also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, had on September 5 reserved its verdict on the pleas. On July 12, the apex court had granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the money laundering case.

In the last hearing by the top court, the chief minister had vehemently opposed in the apex court the CBI's contentions that he should have approached the trial court first for bail in the corruption case.


Questioning the maintainability of Kejriwal's pleas, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the CBI, had submitted that even in the money laundering case in which he had challenged his arrest by the ED, he was sent back by the apex court to the trial court.

Kejriwal has filed two separate petitions challenging the denial of bail and against his arrest by the CBI in the corruption case filed by the central agency.

The AAP chief was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on June 26. He has challenged in the apex court the Delhi High Court's August 5 order which upheld his arrest in the corruption case.

Kejriwal vs HC:
The high court had noted that the loop of evidence against Kejriwal got closed after collection of relevant evidence following his arrest by the CBI and it cannot be said that it was without any justifiable reason or illegal.

The high court had also granted him liberty to approach a trial court with his plea seeking bail in the case.

On August 5, the Delhi High Court upheld the arrest of the Chief Minister as "legal." It had dismissed Kejriwal's plea challenging his arrest, saying it was only after sufficient evidence was collected and sanction was obtained in April 2024 that the CBI proceeded with further probe against him.

The High Court had said there was no malice in the acts of the CBI, which demonstrated how Kejriwal could influence witnesses who could muster the courage to depose only after his arrest.

It had said Kejriwal is not an ordinary citizen but a distinguished recipient of the Magsaysay Award and the convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party.

"The control and the influence which he has on the witnesses is prima facie borne out from the fact that these witnesses could muster the courage to be a witness only after the arrest of the petitioner, as highlighted by the special prosecutor," it had said in it's order.

According to the CBI and the ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours extended to licence holders. The matter relates to alleged corruption in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22, which has now been scrapped.

The ED had on March 21 arrested Kejriwal in connection with the money laundering case.

(with agency inputs)