On Saturday (29th June), Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court sent Delhi Chief Minister and AAP Supremo Arvind Kejriwal to 14 days of judicial custody in connection with the corruption charges in the Delhi Liquor Policy scam case. The vacation bench of Judge Sunena Sharma of Rouse Avenue Courts passed the order sending him to judicial custody till 12th July after the CBI didn’t seek further custody for interrogation.
Notably, during the hearing, the CBI did not ask for further police custody at this stage stating that he was deliberately and intentionally evading the just and relevant questions related to the case.
Earlier, the CBI formally arrested Delhi CM Kejriwal on 26th June from the courtroom after the Vacation Judge of Delhi Court allowed the agency to examine/interrogate him in the courtroom so that the agency could proceed with his formal arrest. Subsequently, he was sent to 3 days of CBI custody in the Delhi excise policy case, colloquially known as the Delhi Liquor Policy scam case.
It is pertinent to note that when the CBI arrested him, Kejriwal was already in judicial custody in connection with a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The CBI has filed four charge sheets in the case. While they have not named Kejriwal so far, they have named 17 accused in the charge sheets including Former Deputy CM of Delhi and Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha.
According to the central agency, AAP received Rs 100 crore as kickbacks, and Rs 44.45 crore of this amount was transferred to Goa from June 2021 to January 2022 through ‘hawala channels’ for election campaign purposes.
Advocate DP Singh appeared for CBI while seeking direction to send Arvind Kejriwal into Judicial Custody and alleged that during the police custody remand, the accused Arvind Kejriwal been examined/ interrogated. However, he did not cooperate with the investigation and deliberately gave evasive replies contrary to the evidence on record.
On being confronted with the evidence, he did not give a proper and truthful explanation regarding the enhancement of the profit margin for wholesalers from 5 per cent to 12 per cent under the new Excise Policy of Delhi 2021-22, without any study or justification, said CBI.
He also could not explain as to why during the peak of 2nd wave of Covid, the Cabinet approval for a revised Excise Policy was obtained through circulation in a hurried manner within 01 day, when the accused persons of the South Group were camping in Delhi and holding meetings with his close associate Vijay Nair.
He evaded the questions regarding the meetings of his associate Vijay Nair with various stakeholders of the liquor business in Delhi and demanded illegal gratification from them for favorable provisions in the upcoming Excise Policy, CBI added. He also evaded questions regarding the transfer and utilization of ill-gotten money to the tune of Rs.44.54 crores in the Goa Assembly Elections by his party during 2021-22, said CBI.
In the light of aforesaid facts and circumstances, the further custodial interrogation of the accused Arvind Kejriwal is not required at this stage, said CBI. CBI alleged that he was deliberately and intentionally evading the just and relevant questions related to the case. He, being a prominent politician and Chief Minister of Delhi, is a very influential person, as such, there are credible reasons to believe that, he may influence the witnesses and evidence already exposed before him during the custodial interrogation and also the potential witnesses, who are yet to be examined, tamper with the evidence to be further collected and may hamper the ongoing investigation, CBI added.
(With Inputs from ANI)