New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been granted bail by the Supreme Court following his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation in June, in connection with the alleged liquor excise policy case.
The Aam Aadmi Party leader can now leave jail – after nearly six months in prison without a trial – after having secured bail in the earlier case filed by the Enforcement Directorate.
A two-judge bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Surya Kant delivered separate verdicts on Mr Kejriwal’s pleas but agreed on the core issue – that the Chief Minister must be released.
Kejriwal had also challenged the CBI’s arrest – which came days after the trial court in Delhi granted him bail in the ED case, and has been criticised by his lawyers as an “insurance arrest”.
Among the conditions imposed on Arvind Kejriwal are that he cannot go to the Chief Minister’s Office or the Delhi Secretariat, or sign government files without the consent of Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena. Mr Kejriwal must also furnish a bail bond of ₹ 50,000 and a surety of a similar amount, and not make statements on this case or interact with witnesses.
The court on Friday morning noted that “completion of trial (is) unlikely to occur in (the) immediate future”, and ruled as it had in three other high-profile bail hearings connected to the liquor policy case – ex-Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, and Telangana politician K Kavitha. All three had been released on identical grounds.
