Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal says he is not a threat; Supreme Court reserves verdict on bail plea
Asserting that he was not a threat to society, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to grant him bail in a corruption case linked to the Delhi excise “scam”. The CBI, on the other hand, said the CM should not be given special treatment just because he was influential.
CBI, CM counsel spar in court
Can’t bypass process
He has approached the Delhi High Court directly without going to the sessions court… preliminary objection is he must first go to trial court. — SV Raju, Additional solicitor general
Matter already delayed
It’s not a fair argument to raise at this stage. You cannot consider sending (Kejriwal) back there… At this stage, there is huge delay involved. — Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Counsel for Kejriwal
Four prominent accused in the case — AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia, BRS leader K Kavitha and AAP’s former communication in-charge Vijay Nair — have already been granted bail by the Supreme Court.
On July 12, the top court had granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the money laundering case, but he continued to be in jail following his June 26 arrest by the CBI in a corruption case. On behalf of Kejriwal, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi told a Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan that being a constitutional functionary, he was not a threat to society or a flight risk.
Singhvi sought to highlight that Kejriwal was not named in the CBI FIR and he was not arrested for nearly two years in the case. It was an “insurance arrest” made on June 26 after he got bail in the “harsher” money laundering case, he added.
The Bench expressed concern over the amount of time spent on hearing Kejriwal’s bail plea, wondering if such extensive hearings were afforded in routine bail cases. “Both sides we will hear… But we are wondering how long we should hear a bail plea. Do ordinary mortals get this much time?” the Bench asked as Singhvi went into details of the alleged illegality of Kejriwal’s arrest by the CBI.
“A bail matter has taken the whole day... the amount of cases we deal with... think of other litigants,” the Bench while reserving its verdict.
“I believe bail matters should be done on robust common sense... and not on hyper-technicality... You don’t defeat liberty by technicality,” Singhvi told the Bench, which was hearing Kejriwal’s petitions challenging the Delhi High Court’s August 5 order dismissing his pleas and upholding his arrest by the CBI and denying him bail.
On behalf of the CBI, ASG SV Raju raised a preliminary objection to Kejriwal directly approaching the Delhi High Court, bypassing the trial court.
