A Delhi court on Saturday sent Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to judicial custody till July 12 in a case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with alleged corruption in now scrapped excise policy 2021-2022.
The order for the judicial remand was passed by the special Judge Sunena Sharma of Rouse Avenue Courts, after the CBI had moved an application seeking judicial custody remand for the Delhi CM.
“He needs to be in jail in the interest of the investigation and justice,” the CBI said in its remand application and added that the Delhi CM hasn’t cooperated in the interrogation.
Counsel representing Mr. Kejriwal opposed the judicial custody remand application stipulating that the excise policy case is going on since 2022 even though the CM was arrested in March 2024.
“....The Supreme Court granted Mr. Kejriwal interim bail to campaign for general elections. The CBI had urged that some evidence was collected against Kejriwal in January and they got prosecution sanction under PC Act in April but the agency did not want to overreach the proceedings of the SC which is why it never arrested him,” advocate Vikram Chaudhary, who represented Mr. Kejriwal, said.
He also moved an application to seek details of material collected against his client in alleged excise policy case.
“These material found against him can’t be disclosed to accused,” the court said.
The court, earlier this week, had remanded the Delhi CM to CBI custody for three days which ended on June 29. The CBI interrogated him in the jail on June 25.
Mr. Kejriwal was initially arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21 on money laundering charges linked to the liquor policy case. The ED had alleged him to be the “key conspirator” in framing the now defunct excise policy. The agency accused him of diverting the monetary profits gained from the policy into the AAP coffers for the Goa Assembly election.
Published - June 29, 2024 05:14 pm IST
