Arvind Kejriwal's Bail Plea Rejected: Supreme Court Seeks Response from CBI

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court declared that it could not grant immediate interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal is currently seeking release from jail concerning a corruption case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) regarding the excise policy case.

The bench, composed of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan, issued a notice to the CBI regarding Kejriwal’s pleas, which challenge the August 5 decision of the Delhi High Court. The High Court had affirmed his arrest and denied him bail.

“We are not granting any interim bail. We will issue notice,” the bench informed senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing Kejriwal, as reported by PTI.

The case has been scheduled for a hearing on August 23.

Kejriwal’s plea was filed two days after the Supreme Court granted bail to former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in a related probe by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). In his plea, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief contested his arrest and the subsequent remand orders while pressing for bail.

Kejriwal’s petitions, filed on Monday, disputed the Delhi High Court’s judgment from August 5, which ruled that his arrest was neither illegal nor without justifiable grounds. The court had noted that the CBI had presented “evidently enough evidence” to justify his detention and remand.

Kejriwal’s plea heavily relied on the Sisodia verdict, where the Supreme Court held that the former Deputy CM’s prolonged incarceration of 17 months and his continued detention in a case where the trial’s conclusion seemed unlikely in the near future violated his fundamental rights to liberty and a speedy trial, as protected under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The AAP chief’s petition argued that the reasons the court used to grant Sisodia bail should equally apply to him