NEW DELHI, June 26:
In mounting troubles for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the CBI on Wednesday arrested the AAP chief in a corruption case linked to the alleged excise scam. He is already in judicial custody in connection with an ED money laundering case related to the same scam.
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A Delhi court later sent Kejriwal to three-day custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) after the hearing of arguments on the probe agency’s application during which he said he is innocent.
The Chief Minister, who also addressed the court in person, denied having given any statement putting the “entire blame” for the liquor policy scam on his close aide and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who is also an accused in the scam. He claimed that the CBI is sensationalising the issue.
The CBI on its part accused Kejriwal of making “unnecessary allegation of malice”.
“CBI’s application is allowed for three days,” Special Judge Amitabh Rawat said.
The application seeking Kejriwal’s arrest was moved by the CBI after he was produced before the court from Tihar central jail, where he was lodged in judicial custody in the money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate( ED). Kejriwal was questioned by the CBI in Tihar jail on Tuesday.
While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accused the BJP of getting Kejriwal arrested in a “fake case” by the CBI, the party chief’s wife Sunita Kejriwal alleged the whole system is trying to ensure that her husband does not come out of jail and that this is akin to “dictatorship” and “emergency”.
Kejriwal will remain in the CBI custody for now, until his custodial interrogation in the corruption case comes to an end, which can go up to a maximum of 15 days.
If Kejriwal fails to secure bail in the corruption and money laundering cases, being probed by the CBI and ED respectively, he will go back to judicial custody once his police custody ends in the present case.
The Delhi court had on June 19 extended Kejriwal’s judicial custody till July 3 in the ED’s money laundering case.
The AAP chief was arrested on March 21 by the ED. He was granted regular bail by the trial court on June 20 but the Delhi High Court on Tuesday stayed the bail order. In between, he returned to Tihar jail on June 2 after the end of the 21-day interim bail that was granted to him by the Supreme Court to campaign in the Lok Sabha elections.
In the application seeking Kejriwal’s custody, the CBI told the court that he was required to be quizzed to unearth the larger conspiracy in the matter and that the accused was required to be confronted with the other accused persons.
Kejriwal alleged that the entire plan of the probe agencies is to defame the AAP and its leaders in the media.
“It is being run in the media through CBI sources that I have given a statement putting my entire blame on Manish Sisodia. I have not give any such statement that Sisodia is guilty, or anyone else is guilty. I have said Sisodia is innocent, AAP is innocent, I am innocent. Their entire plan is to defame us in media. Please record that all these have been run in media through CBI sources,” Kejriwal told the court. (PTI)
“It needs to be clarified. This will be top headline in all the newspapers. Their aim is to sensationalise the matter.”
CBI counsel D P Singh, however, said the probe agency was not the source.
“I argued in court. No source said anything. And I argued on facts.”
The judge, however, noted that the media picks up one line.
“It is very difficult to control media that way.”
The CBI made the arrest before the court after getting permission from the judge. It had sought court’s permission to formally arrest Kejriwal in the case.
“We need his custodial interrogation. What he is doing is, he is not even recognising that (co-accused) Vijay Nair was working under him. He says Nair was working under Atishi Marlena and Saurabh Bhardwaj. He puts the entire onus on Manish Sisodia. He has to be confronted. He has to be shown documents,” the CBI counsel submitted.
“Unnecessary allegations of malice are being made. We could have conducted these proceedings before the elections. I (CBI) am doing my job, satisfying every court.”
Responding to the court’s “why arrest now” query, the CBI counsel said the agency refrained from arresting Kejriwal, even from investigating the case while the polls were being held.
“Court was considering his interim bail for elections. If at that time I (CBI) would have arrested… That shows my restraint that I didn’t arrest him when he was campaigning.”
Kejriwal’s counsel Vikaram Chaudhary opposed CBI’s plea seeking his custody, terming the remand application as “totally vague”.
“This is a classic case of abuse of power.”
In a post on X in Hindi, Sunita Kejriwal said her husband got bail on June 20 in the money laundering case but the ED immediately got a stay.
“The very next day, the CBI made him an accused. And today he was arrested. The whole system is trying to ensure that the man does not come out of jail. This is not law. This is dictatorship, this is emergency,” she said. (PTI)
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