Six months after he was first arrested in the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the CBI case on Friday. Both the judges delivered separate judgements but unanimously held that prolonged imprisonment “amounts to unjust deprivation of liberty”.
Justice Surya Kant held that the arrest of Kejriwal was legal and did not suffer from any procedural irregularity. However, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan had a differing view, saying the arrest by the CBI was “unjustified”.”The appellant’s arrest does not suffer from illegality. The issue is of liberty… integral to sensitised judicial process. Prolonged incarceration amounts to unjust deprivation of liberty,” Justice Kant said.
Kejriwal becomes the fourth high-profile leader to walk out of jail in the case after AAP leaders Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Vijay Nair and Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s K Kavitha.
Kejriwal’s release will come as a shot in the arm for the AAP ahead of the Haryana Assembly election, where the party is gearing up to challenge the incumbent BJP and its INDIA bloc partner Congress.
The Delhi Chief Minister was first arrested by the ED on March 21 in a money laundering case stemming from the alleged liquor policy scam. He was arrested by the CBI in a corruption case on June 26 while he was in the custody of the ED.
