Former CBI JD Lakshminarayana Responds to Arvind Kejriwal's Arrest

The arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers in the Delhi liquor scam has created shockwaves. Former CBI Joint Director V.V. Lakshminarayana has responded to Kejriwal's arrest. He explained that ED officers had sent several summons to Kejriwal in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case, but he never appeared for the inquiry. Given this context, ED officers arrested him last night.

Lakshminarayana mentioned that it is a standard procedure for the investigating agency to present the arrestee in court within 24 hours of the arrest, and then, to explain the reasons and evidence for the arrest. He also noted that the agency has the opportunity to request custody of the arrested individual by presenting the documents and reasons for the arrest to the court. Just as they had requested 10 days custody for Kavitha earlier, they would proceed similarly in Kejriwal's case.

"The investigating agency must justify their arrest logically. To extract certain specific information from the individuals, arrest might be the only option, which the agencies have to explain to the court. Having the powers is one thing... but how to extract any information from the person after arrest is another critical aspect.

Regarding the court... it will decide whether to grant the investigators custody of the suspects, send them to judicial custody, or release them on bail, after reviewing the evidence and reasons provided by the investigating agency. These are the three usual outcomes in court after an arrest. It's essential to see what arguments are made in court post-arrest.

Now, in this case, the ED officials have the opportunity to question both Kavitha and Kejriwal together, since Kavitha has already been arrested, and compare the information gathered from her with that from Kejriwal to advance the investigation.

During the investigation phase, courts generally do not intervene much, providing the investigative agencies more room to proceed. There are numerous verdicts indicating courts' inclination to allow investigative agencies more leeway. There are hardly any records of courts intervening in matters of initial arrest and custody in any case. However, since they have approached the Supreme Court, it remains to be seen how the Supreme Court will handle this matter," explained Lakshminarayana.