New Delhi: India's Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of India's capital and a key political opponent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Kejriwal has been behind bars for months on allegations that his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licences. "Prolonged incarceration amounts to unjust deprivation of liberty," Supreme Court justice Surya Kant said in the verdict. Kejriwal was first taken into custody in March by India's Enforcement Directorate (ED), a central agency established to fight financial crimes. His arrest led to widespread speculation since it came weeks before the country's national elections.

 

The Supreme Court let him out temporarily in May for some 20 days, to campaign for the polls. In July, he was granted bail in the ED case but remained in the custody of the federal police which also arrested him on a graft case related to the same policy. Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has denied the allegations and claimed the arrests were "politically motivated."

 

The Supreme Court on Friday (September 13, 2024) ordered Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to be released on regular bail in a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in relation to the now-scrapped excise policy.

 

Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan concurred to grant bail to Mr. Kejriwal but differed on the point of the legality of his arrest by the Central investigating agency. Justice Kant barred Mr. Kejriwal from visiting the office of the Chief Minister and the Delhi Secretariat or sign official files unless it was required and necessary for obtaining clearance/approval of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. These two conditions were adopted from the July 12 order of the apex court granting the Chief Minister bail in a connected money laundering case investigated by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED).

 

Justice Bhuyan however said he had “serious reservations” about the two bail conditions but refrained from delving further into them as they were part of the July 12 order in a different case heard by a Coordinate Bench of the apex court. His restraint would mean the two bail conditions would now be effective.

 

The judgment was based on petitions filed by Mr. Kejriwal, represented by senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, seeking bail and the quashing of his arrest by the CBI on June 26.