New Delhi. The Delhi High Court today on Wednesday heard the petition of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging the arrest and remand order of the CBI in the corruption case related to the Delhi Excise Policy Scam. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Arvind Kejriwal, mentioned former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan during cross-examination in the court regarding Kejriwal's bail.  We are not Pakistan- Singhvi

Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “The trial court has granted Kejriwal regular bail under PMLA just four days ago. We are proud that we are not Pakistan where Imran Khan was released three days ago, everyone read it in the newspaper and he was again arrested in another case. But, this cannot happen in our country.”

Read Singhvi's arguments-

• Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Kejriwal on the petition challenging the arrest in the CBI case, said that the CBI did not have any evidence to arrest him. The CBI had made the arrest only in the sense that if Kejriwal comes out, it would be an additional arrest. There are three release orders in favour of Kejriwal.
• Singhvi said the very act of release and re-surrender in June shows full satisfaction of the triple test. The Supreme Court last week deemed it fit to release him on interim bail indefinitely.
• Singhvi argued that Kejriwal has got regular bail in the money laundering case, which has been stayed by the High Court. The court will decide on it. At the same time, Kejriwal has got interim bail from the apex court. In such a situation, the CBI's arrest is the result of this.
• Singhvi said that it is important to look at some dates. Kejriwal's name is not mentioned in the FIR lodged on 17 August 2022. After this, summons were sent to Kejriwal on 14 March 2023 and I appeared on the summons. The CBI did not deem it necessary to question me in the last 240 days.
• Singhvi said that after three months in the year 2024, when the election code of conduct came into force, the ED arrested Kejriwal on March 21. Kejriwal was in judicial custody and in the meantime the CBI demanded custody.
• Singhvi said that as per common sense, there was no need to arrest Kejriwal in this situation. That too when the lower court granted regular bail to Kejriwal on June 20. The CBI became active in the whole case on June 26. Suddenly Kejriwal became important for the CBI and it demanded his custody.
• Singhvi said that on July 12, Kejriwal got interim bail from the Supreme Court in the ED case. In such a situation, Kejriwal is where he was due to the CBI arrest because the investigating agencies want to keep Kejriwal behind bars by any means.
• Singhvi argued that in such a situation my point is that why the CBI, which remained silent for two years, became active after Kejriwal got relief from the court.

Singhvi said that my second point is that you cannot treat Kejriwal like this in violation of the most broad fundamental right of freedom and the procedure established by law.

• Singhvi said the CBI is in complete violation of procedure under Article 21. Kejriwal is already in ED custody. After almost two years of being in judicial custody, the CBI applies to question Kejriwal on remand in terms of Section 41A of CrPC.
• Singhvi said that after all Kejriwal is not a terrorist but a Chief Minister. Kejriwal never gets a copy of the application and no notice has been given, Kejriwal was not heard.
• Court: Is there no formal arrest in CBI?
• Singhvi replied that the trial court had granted Kejriwal regular bail under PMLA just four days ago. We are proud that we are not a country where Imran Khan was released three days ago, everyone read it in the newspaper and he was arrested again in another case. This cannot happen in our country.
• Singhvi said that the trial court grants remand only on the reason that he is not giving satisfactory answers.
• Singhvi said that if Kejriwal tells the interrogator to go to hell, I will not answer, can the court say that you will be arrested? I am asking an extreme question to explain my point. What is Article 22? People are forgetting, then what are we lecturing about constitutional rights.
• Singhvi said that in the order of Supreme Court Justice Sanjeev Khanna in Kejriwal's case, there is a very interesting sentence that interrogation in itself cannot be the basis for arrest. This is a notable case. It is not like you can blindfold yourself and let the arrest happen.
• Singhvi said that in the end the prayer of the investigating agency is that please give permission to arrest Kejriwal. What kind of prayer is this? I have never seen such an application in which not even a single attempt was made to show under which section you want to arrest. No reason was also given. On the same day, without informing me or hearing me, permission was given.
• Singhvi said that the entire job of the judge is to filter, but there is no notice, no hearing and he passes the order.
• Singhvi said the application was filed on June 25, the order was passed the same day and thanks to a little mercy of God, Kejriwal got the order the next day. Singhvi said this is how the lower court is working.
• Singhvi said that suppose Kejriwal says that there is no question of Rs 100 crore and he does not know anything about it. Then the investigating agency argues that there is no satisfactory answer and this is satisfaction of the crime.
• "How is it necessary to arrest him in 12 hours or less? Why? No answer, even though the application said that the arrest be allowed. The judge should have thrown it out because if the court allows it and says go and arrest him, it will become valid," Singhvi said.
• Singhvi said that if Kejriwal is in jail under judicial custody, the investigating agency can interrogate him and there is no need to arrest him. That is why it has been called an arrest for self-protection, so that Kejriwal cannot be free.
• Singhvi said that five important accused in the CBI case have got bail, whereas nine accused have not been arrested at all.

Let us tell you that on the last hearing, the bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna had issued notice to the CBI and directed it to file a reply. During the hearing, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi had said that this is the first time that a notice has been issued.

The first point is the need for arrest. There was no question of the CBI arresting me in June as the CBI FIR is of August 2022. The arrest and subsequent remand order have been challenged by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.