CBI, BJP ‘conspiring’ to keep Kejriwal in jail, alleges AAP

A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) justified the arrest of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi excise policy case and said he played a “pivotal role” in the policy, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and CBI were “conspiring to keep Kejriwal in jail” and that the central agency is “dancing to the tunes” of BJP.
AAP leaders said despite conspiracies, truth will ultimately prevail and Kejriwal will soon walk out of jail.
“Yesterday, during the bail hearing of Arvind Kejriwal in the Supreme Court, CBI stood in front of the Supreme Court and said that they needed a week to file an affidavit in this case, so the hearing should not be held. On this, the Supreme Court gave time to the central government’s CBI and set the date of the hearing after two weeks (September 5). But the affidavit for which CBI sought a week from the court to file, is today printed in every newspaper… The question arises, how did the affidavit for which CBI needed a week’s time yesterday get printed in all the newspapers today?” Atishi said, alleging that the CBI leaked the “affidavit” in the newspapers.
“It simply means that the affidavit was ready. CBI lied to the Supreme Court that it is not ready. That means CBI is conspiring just to keep Kejriwal in jail for a few more days,” Atishi said.
The allegations came a day after the CBI justified the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi excise policy case, accusing the AAP chief of playing a “pivotal role” in the formulation and implementation of the controversial policy. According to the agency, the Delhi CM’s arrest was “essential for the just conclusion of the investigation”, particularly given his non-cooperation and the substantial evidence pointing to his involvement. This came even as the Supreme Court on Friday postponed the hearing of Kejriwal’s petition seeking release from jail to September 5.
Kejriwal was arrested in connection with alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped 2021-22 excise policy case on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Kejriwal has been in custody since March 21 following his arrest by ED, apart from a 21-day interim bail in May granted by the top court for Lok Sabha elections campaigning.
On July 12, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the ED case, acknowledging that he had spent over 90 days in incarceration. Still, he continued to remain in custody due to his arrest by CBI on June 26 in the same matter.
HT reached out to CBI, but did not get any response to request for comment.
Former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia alleged that CBI was “dancing to the tune” of the BJP.
“Just see how CBI is dancing like a puppet on BJP’s agenda to keep Arvind Kejriwal in jail. The day CBI goes to the court and says that our reply on the bail plea is not ready and therefore the bail hearing should be postponed by 14 days, the same day CBI’s reply is given to the media… No matter how many conspiracies you hatch for headline management, truth and honesty will win. Agencies may dance to political tunes but the constitution and justice are always with the truth,” Manish Sisodia said in a post in Hindi on X.
To be sure, there are two petitions filed by Kejriwal. In one matter, CBI told the court that affidavit was filed on August 22. It was also served to Kejriwal’s lawyers. In the second petition, CBI sought time to file response. The one printed in newspapers on August 24 is the one filed before the court.
Atishi said the “conspiracy” against AAP leaders is going on for the last two years and multiple raids have been conducted against them but “no evidence has been found any against leader.”
While Kejriwal is still inside jail, party leader Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh who were also arrested in connection with the alleged irregularities in the excise policy case are out on bail. AAP leader Satyendar Jain, who was arrested in a money laundering case (not related to excise policy) is still behind bars.
“Raids were conducted in the houses of AAP leaders, they were called for questioning again and again, and witnesses were threatened to testify against AAP leaders. Despite all the raids, when not even a single rupee of corruption was found, AAP leaders were arrested one by one and sent to jail. Satyendar Jain, Manish Sisodia, and Sanjay Singh were arrested. But even despite all of this when the AAP did not slow down, Arvind Kejriwal was also arrested in a false case just before the Lok Sabha elections,” said Atishi.
“On June 20, Arvind Kejriwal got bail from the trial court in ED’s PMLA case. Even before that order was uploaded, on the morning of 21st June, the ED reached the high court and got the trial court order stayed without the (ED) order being issued. On June 22, Arvind Kejriwal’s lawyer went to the Supreme Court against the HC order. The BJP knows that every person gets justice from the Supreme Court and he has got bail in the ED case, so on 26th June, the BJP gets Arvind Kejriwal arrested by the CBI so that he cannot come out of jail,” said Atishi.
“On July 11, when Arvind Kejriwal got bail from the Supreme Court in the ED case, even after more than a month has passed, Arvind Kejriwal is not able to come out of jail due to the conspiracy of the BJP,” said Atishi.
The AAP leader said in Manish Sisodia’s case when the hearing was on July 15, even then “BJP’s ED and CBI” told the Supreme Court that they needed time, due to which the hearing of July 15 was postponed till July 29.
To be sure Manish Sisodia was granted bail by Supreme Court on August 9 in the excise policy case.
“I would like to tell the BJP that no matter how hard they try, truth ultimately prevails. We saw that despite the best efforts of CBI and ED, Manish Sisodia got relief from Supreme Court and we are confident that CM Arvind Kejriwal will also soon come among the people of Delhi,” said Atishi.
Delhi BJP spokespersons Praveen Shankar Kapoor and Amit Tiwari said AAP leaders should challenge CBI in the court if they think the agency has done anything wrong.
“AAP is an anarchic party whose leaders expect investigative agencies to work at their whims. For AAP leaders any investigation agency opposing their bail application or contention or a court not allowing their sought relief is biased towards them at the behest of the BJP. If Atishi and Manish Sisodia really believe that CBI has done anything wrong or has lied then instead of doing media melodrama they should challenge CBI in the Supreme Court,” said the BJP spokespersons.