Report Wire

Tag: bail

  • SC reserves verdict on Arvind Kejriwal’s pleas

    The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on pleas filed by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal seeking bail and challenging his arrest by CBI for his alleged involvement in the Delhi excise policy case.

    Senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, said his arrest was nothing but an “insurance arrest”, implying that CBI arrested him only to ensure that even if the CM gets bail in the ED case, he remains behind bars in CBI case.

    The CBI counsel alleged the Punjab government, at Kejriwal’s behest, has denied sanction to prosecute some state officials who allegedly armtwisted the owner of a Punjabbased distillery to comply with the alleged bribe demands. The counsel said the probe regarding that is stalled since the AAP government there hasn’t given sanction under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act.The bench verbally asked CBI counsel whether the distillery owner was a witness. Reply in the negative, the counsel said witnesses in Goa had refused to come forward to record their statement before Kejriwal was arrested, adding the witnesses recorded their statements only after Kejriwal’s arrest. “If Kejriwal is released on bail, the witnesses may turn hostile.”

    The CBI counsel objected to Kejriwal’s pleas, arguing that he had bypassed the trial court and straight away approached SC. The counsel contended that Kejriwal has failed to prove that his is an exceptional case which warrants a direct hearing from SC. The counsel said grant of bail to Kejriwal would amount to demoralizing high court. But SC disagreed with this contention.

    Singhvi said it would be unfair to relegate Kejriwal back to trial court when issues arising in the present bail case have been extensively argued before the trial court in a related matter. He added almost every other accused arrested by ED and CBI has been given bail, except Kejriwal.

  • Manish Sisodia gets bail, SC says ‘trial hasn’t begun yet’

    Observing that “the right to speedy trial and the right to liberty are sacrosanct rights,” the Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in connection with the Delhi excise case.

    A division bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan granted bail to in both cases registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the said scandal. Ordering the release of Sisodia, who has been behind bars for over 17 months, the top court cautioned the trial and high courts against playing safe in matters of grant of bail.

    The bench observed that “over a period of time, the trial courts and the high courts have forgotten a very wellsettled principle of law that bail is not to be withheld as a punishment.” The SC further noted that the trial has not even commenced in the instant case. “In the present case, in the ED matter as well as the CBI matter, 493 witnesses have been named. The case involves thousands of pages of documents and over a lakh pages of digitized documents. It is thus clear that there is not even the remotest possibility of the trial being concluded in the near future,” the judgment reads. Elaborating, the bench added “in our view, keeping the appellant (Sisodia) behind the bars for an unlimited period of time in the hope of speedy completion of trial would deprive his fundamental right to liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.” The judgment further reads “as observed time and again, the prolonged incarceration before being pronounced guilty of an offense should not be permitted to become punishment without trial.” The top court further recorded that the instant case “largely depends on documentary evidence which is already seized by the prosecution.” As such, the bench added, “there is no possibility of tampering with the evidence.”The bench disagreed with the trial court’s finding that it was Sisodia who was attempting to delay the commencement of the trial in the case. “In that view of the matter, we find that the finding of the learned trial judge that it is the appellant (Sisodia) who is responsible for delaying the trial is not supported by the record,” the judgment reads.

  • Delhi court denies interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal

    A local court on Wednesday dismissed a plea filed by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking interim bail for seven days on health grounds.The court observed that extensive poll campaigning and meetings held by Kejriwal during the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls show that he was not suffering from any serious or life threatening ailments. The court also revived the AIIMS medical board constituted earlier by it to examine Kejriwal.The court has asked the medical board to conduct medical tests as it deems appropriate within three days.Kejriwal had petitioned the court seeking interim bail on the ground that he had to undergo certain medical tests. The court, however, directed the concerned authorities to conduct the required medical tests of the Aam Aadmi Party chief.AllUttar PradeshMaharashtraTamil NaduWest BengalBiharKarnatakaAndhra PradeshTelanganaKeralaMadhya PradeshRajasthanDelhiOther StatesThe court is scheduled to take up Kejriwal’s regular bail plea on June 7. Kejriwal returned to Tihar Jail on June 2 as directed by the Supreme Court which had granted him interim bail allowing him to campaign for the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls. Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in March under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for his alleged role in the Delhi excise policy case.

  • Sexual assault case: Court adjourns HD Revanna’s plea, next hearing on Friday

    Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Monday adjourned JDS MLA HD Revanna’s plea on quashing the first information report (FIR) filed against him in a case of alleged abduction of a sexual assault survivor from her home in Mysuru district.

    The high court will hear the case on Friday.

    Revanna, a former minister and son of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, was booked last month on accusations of kidnapping one of the alleged survivors of sexual abuse by his son Prajwal Revanna, who is BJPled NDA’s candidate from Hassan in this Lok Sabha election. HD Revanna is currently out on bail. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) is also probing him for charges of sexual harassment of a domestic help.AllUttar PradeshMaharashtraTamil NaduWest BengalBiharKarnatakaAndhra PradeshTelanganaKeralaMadhya PradeshRajasthanDelhiOther StatesThe special court for public representatives granted him bail on the condition that the accused would furnish a bond for ₹5 lakh , along with two sureties. He is also barred from leaving the country, entering KR Nagar in Mysuru district, from where he allegedly abducted the survivor, and interacting with the witnesses. The Karnataka High Court on Friday had raised concerns over the court’s decision to grant him bail, and had issued him an urgent notice, seeking his response to the SIT’s bail cancellation petition. Revanna’s son Prajwal, embroiled in the state’s infamous sex video case, is currently in SIT custody. The JDS MP, who is seeking reelection from Hassan as NDA candidate, had fled the country after pen drives containing sex videos allegedly involving him were distributed in his constituency days before the polling in the general election. He was arrested upon his return from Germany on Friday. A special court in the city remanded him to police custody till June 6. The SIT probing the sex abuse case is parallelly pursuing a case of abduction of a survivor by Revanna’s family. Revanna Jr’s mother Bhavani was due to be questioned on Saturday, but she has disappeared since. The SIT had issued a notice to Bhavani asking her to be present at her home on June 1 as there was a need to question her in the kidnap case.