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The court questioned the ‘great hurry and urgency’ by the CBI to arrest Kejriwal when he was on the cusp of release in the ED case, after not feeling the necessity to arrest the Delhi chief minister for ’22 long months’ before that. File pic/PTI
The court noted that the conclusion of the trial against the Delhi chief minister was unlikely in the near future with several co-accused being given bail and the conduct of the CBI in arresting him was questionable
What turned the matter in favour of Arvind Kejriwal in his bail plea was the Supreme Court being convinced that the conclusion of the trial against him was unlikely in the near future with several co-accused being given bail and the questionable conduct of the Central Bureau of Investigation in arresting him.
The 60-page SC judgement mainly points to these two reasons which worked in Kejriwal’s favour. The court questioned the “great hurry and urgency” by the CBI to arrest him when he was on the cusp of release in the Enforcement Directorate case, after not feeling the necessity to arrest the Delhi chief minister for “22 long months” before that. “Like Caesar’s wife, an investigating agency must be above board. It is imperative that CBI dispel the notion of it being a caged parrot,” the apex court said.
‘Already Granted Interim Bail in ED Case’
The bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Surya Kant noted that five charge sheets had been filed by the CBI, 17 accused named in them, 224 individuals identified as witnesses, and extensive documentation, both physical and digital, submitted running into lakhs of pages. “These factors suggest that the completion of the trial is unlikely to occur in the immediate future,” the court noted in its judgement.
The SC also noted that Kejriwal had been granted interim bail by the court in the ED matter, which it described to be under a “more stringent” law and said both cases arose from the same set of facts. The ED has filed seven prosecution complaints in the case.
“Additionally, several co-accused in both the CBI and ED matters have also been granted bail by the Trial Court, the High Court, and this Court in separate proceedings,” the SC noted. It referred to the bail orders of the SC in the case of Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia and Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s K Kavitha.
The court noted that both the CBI and the ED had named Kejriwal as an accused only in their last charge sheets.
‘CBI Conduct Like Caged Parrot’
The SC said it was evident that the CBI did not feel the need and necessity to arrest Kejriwal the appellant from 17.08.2022 (when the first FIR in the Excise Scam was registered) till 26.06.2024, i.e., for over 22 months. “It was only after the learned Special Judge granted regular bail to the appellant in the ED case that the CBI activated its machinery and took Kejriwal into custody. Such action on the part of the CBI raises a serious question mark on the timing of the arrest; rather on the arrest itself,” the SC judgement said.
In the circumstances, a view may be taken that such an arrest by the CBI was perhaps only to frustrate the bail granted to the appellant in the ED case, said the judgement.
“When the CBI did not feel the necessity to arrest Kejriwal for 22 long months, I fail to understand the great hurry and urgency on the part of the CBI to arrest the appellant when he was on the cusp of release in the ED case,” Justice Bhuyan noted.
“Like Caesar’s wife, an investigating agency must be above board. Not so long ago, this Court had castigated the CBI comparing it to a caged parrot. It is imperative that CBI dispel the notion of it being a caged parrot. Rather, the perception should be that of an uncaged parrot,” Justice Bhuyan said, while the court granted Kejriwal bail.
