India court orders Delhi Chief Minister to judicial custody in excise policy case News
RAJINDER PAL SINGH BRAR, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
India court orders Delhi Chief Minister to judicial custody in excise policy case

The Rouse Avenue Court of Delhi ordered Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday to 14 days of judicial custody in relation to corruption charges involving alleged inconsistencies in the 2021–22 excise policy, according to video and reports from Indian media.

Judge Sunena Sharma of Rouse Avenue Courts issued the order after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) decided not to request an extension of Kejriwal’s custody. Sharma ruled that the court would have to send the accused to judicial custody after the police remand expires.

On June 20, the trial court granted Kejriwal bail in the case. However, the Delhi High Court placed an interim stay on bail on the subsequent day. The Delhi High Court affirmed the stay of the trial court’s bail ruling on June 25. On June 26, Rouse Avenue Court ordered Kejriwal to be held in CBI custody for three days after the agency’s application for custody of the Aam Aadmi Party head for questioning.

Kejriwal was detained by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 22, 2024, on charges of money laundering, corruption, and anomalies in creating and implementing the New Delhi Excise Policy. The ED and CBI alleged that the policy was implemented to offer unfair advantages to private dealers, who provided monetary benefits to party officials.

The Delhi government enacted the New Delhi Excise Policy 2021–22 in November 2021 to maximize revenue for the state and address the problem of counterfeit alcohol sales. The government later withdrew the policy in September 2022 due to multiple accusations against the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, which included favoring private sector owners and shareholders and engaging in bribery.

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