CBI gets 3-day custody of CM Kejriwal in liquor policy case

A court here on Wednesday sent Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to CBI custody for three days in connection with the corruption case linked to the alleged liquor policy scam case.

The order was passed by vacation judge Amitabh Rawat on the CBI’s application seeking five-day custody of the Aam Aadmi Party supremo for interrogation.

Earlier in the day, CM Kejriwal, when produced before the Rouse Avenue Court, was formally arrested by the CBI. Permission was granted to the CBI to produce CM Kejriwal in the special court on Wednesday after he was questioned by the agency in Tihar Jail.

During the hearing on CBI's plea seeking his custody, Kejriwal said that he did not blame any of his party leaders, including former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, for alleged irregularities in the framing of the now-scrapped liquor policy.

Addressing the court, he alleged that the CBI sources were building a false narrative in the media to malign the image of the ruling party in the national capital and its leaders.

"I have never testified that Manish Sisodia is guilty. Manish Sisodia is innocent, AAP is innocent, I am innocent," he said.

However, the CBI counsel stressed that custodial interrogation of CM Kejriwal was necessary as he shifted the entire onus onto former Deputy CM Sisodia, who handled the liquor portfolio at the relevant time.

Judge Rawat had then reserved his order on the CBI’s application.

In a related matter, Kejriwal withdrew his plea filed before the Supreme Court challenging the interim stay ordered by the Delhi High Court on his release on bail in the money laundering case linked to the same case.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the AAP supremo, submitted before a vacation bench of Justices Manoj Misra and SVN Bhatti that a fresh plea would be moved before the apex court in view of the latest decision of the Delhi High Court staying the trial court order granting bail to CM Kejriwal in the money laundering case.

In its final verdict pronounced on a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Delhi High Court on Tuesday said that the trial court's vacation bench did not apply its mind to the entire material and it ought to give equal opportunity to the ED to argue the bail application.