The Delhi High Court today (July 18) reserved an order on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea seeking two additional legal meetings with his lawyers through video conferencing from Tihar Jail.
Delhi CM Kejriwal challenges arrest by CBI in Delhi HC
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenged in the Delhi High Court on Wednesday (July 17) his arrest by the CBI in a corruption case stemming from the alleged excise policy scam and contended that it was an insurance arrest to ensure that he stays in prison.
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, who conducted the proceedings on a holiday on account of Muharram, heard the arguments advanced by the lawyers of Kejriwal and the CBI and reserved its order on the petitions challenging his arrest and seeking interim bail in the corruption case.
The high court has listed his regular bail plea for further arguments on July 29. The counsel for CBI opposed both pleas of Kejriwal and said that terming his arrest an insurance arrest was unjustified.
Calling his arrest a sham, Kejriwal’s lawyer argued that the CBI did not want to arrest him and had no material to take him into custody, and the sequence of events made it clear that he was arrested to ensure that he remained in prison.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing the AAP national convenor, contended, "It is unfortunately an insurance arrest. I have effectively three release orders in my favour (two from the Supreme Court and one from the trial court in the ED case) under very stringent provisions of the PMLA. These orders show that the man is entitled to be released."
Asserting that Kejriwal was not a terrorist but the chief minister of Delhi, Singhvi said his arrest was not as per the mandate of the law and he was entitled to bail.
"It is a rarest of rare case. He (Kejriwal) is already in custody in the ED case and CBI does nothing for the last one year and then suddenly arrests him," he argued, adding that those who are doing this want him to remain in custody by hook or crook.
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