While letting Arvind Kejriwal go, the Supreme Court highlighted “a serious question mark” against the CBI.
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00:00CBI, a caged parrot, Kejriwal's arrest and unjust deprivation of personal liberty,
00:06bail is the rule and jail is the exception,
00:09were some of the observations of the Supreme Court in former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind
00:13Kejriwal's bail hearing. Arvind Kejriwal walked out of Tihar jail on 13th September 2024.
00:30He was jailed in connection with an alleged liquor policy scam. The Enforcement Directorate
00:41or ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI had implicated him on separate charges.
00:47Late at night on 21st March 2024, the ED arrested Kejriwal on charges of money laundering linked
00:54to the Delhi excise policy. On 21st June, a trial court said the ED was biased against Kejriwal as
01:00it could not directly link the former CM with the crime. Then, on 12th July, the Supreme Court
01:06granted him interim bail. But he couldn't walk free because the CBI arrested him on charges of
01:11corruption linked to the same excise policy. In its judgement, on 13th September, the Supreme
01:16Court granted Kejriwal bail while questioning the Central Agency. Some of the points the
01:21bench of justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Suryakant raised are as follows.
01:26CBI a caged parrot Justice Bhuyan said that an investigation
01:30must be carried out fairly and any perception that it was high-handed and biased should be removed.
01:36Elaborating on this point, he brought the CBI's investigation into account and said,
01:41like Caesar's wife, an investigating agency must be above board. Not so long ago,
01:47this court had castigated the CBI comparing it to a caged parrot. It is imperative that CBI
01:54dispel the notion of it being a caged parrot. Rather, the perception should be that of an
01:58uncaged parrot. A serious question mark on the timing of the arrest. The CBI arrested Kejriwal
02:0422 months after filing an FIR against him on 17th August, 2022. At this time,
02:10he was already under arrest in the ED case. A special judge granted him bail,
02:15which the High Court stated one day later. At this point, the CBI became active,
02:20according to Justice Bhuyan, and sought Kejriwal's arrest,
02:23even though they had interrogated him nearly a year before that.
02:27The Supreme Court judge also pointed out that the CBI arrested Kejriwal
02:31even before they named him as an accused in their charge sheet.
02:34Justice Bhuyan further said, when the CBI did not feel the necessity to arrest the
02:39appellant for 22 long months, I failed to understand the great hurry and urgency on
02:44the part of the CBI to arrest the appellant when he was on the cusp of release in the ED case.
02:50The prolonged arrest was an unjust deprivation of personal liberty.
02:54While considering whether Kejriwal was entitled to the relief of regular bail,
02:59Justice Suryakant observed that because the trial was not likely to end in immediate future,
03:04holding him back in jail for such an indefinite period would infringe upon his right to liberty.
03:09On this, he also negated the CBI's concerns that Kejriwal could influence or tamper with
03:15the investigation while out on bail by intimidating witnesses. He said that since
03:20the CBI already had all the evidence in their position, Kejriwal would not be able to tamper
03:25with it. And if he did do anything of that sort, he would have to face necessary consequences.
03:31Justice Suryakant also said given Kejriwal's position and his roots in the society,
03:36there seems to be no valid reason to entertain the apprehension of his fleeing the country.
03:41Dismissing the CBI's claim that Kejriwal didn't cooperate with investigations,
03:45the CBI said an evasive and non-cooperative Kejriwal failed to give satisfactory replies
03:51when they interrogated him on 25th June, which compelled them to arrest him.
03:55On this, Justice Bhuyan said no person accused of an offence shall be compelled to be a witness
04:01against himself, citing Article 20, Clause 3 of the Constitution.
04:05Noting that the CBI is definitely wrong, Justice Bhuyan said that just because an accused doesn't
04:11answer questions the way an investigation agency expects them to, doesn't mean that the accused
04:16isn't cooperating with an investigation. He dismissed the CBI's grounds of non-cooperation
04:21as a valid reason to arrest and continue to detain Kejriwal.
04:25Kejriwal's arrest unjustified
04:27Justice Bhuyan said an accused is innocent until proven guilty by a competent court
04:32following the due process, to emphasise that bail is the rule and jail the exception.
04:38He categorically stated that the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal was not justified.
04:42I am of the unhesitant view that the belated arrest of the appellant by the CBI is unjustified
04:48and the continued incarceration of the appellant in the CBI case
04:52that followed such arrest has become untenable, he said.