New Delhi, Sep 13 (UNI) Prolonged incarceration amounts to unjust deprivation of liberty, the Supreme Court said on Friday while granting bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a Delhi Liquor Policy case filed the CBI and pulling up the agency for lax probe and describing it as a “caged parrot”.

The court upheld Kejriwal’s arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) saying that the appellant's arrest does not suffer from illegality but one of the judges expressed displeasure, saying the probe was not carried out properly. “The CBI should be perceived as a caged parrot,” said the judge.

A bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, while granting bail to Kejriwal, said, “We direct Arvind Kejriwal to be released on bail subject to furnishing a bail bond of Rs 10 lakh and one surety of the like amount.”

The conditional bail bars Kejriwal from attending office or signing official files but paves the way for him to campaign for the Aam Aadmi Party in Haryana Assembly elections.

Two judgments were pronounced in the petitions filed by Kejriwal in Supreme Court challenging CBI arrest and seeking bail.

Both Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan pronounced their judgments.

Justice Kant said based on arguments, we have framed questions. Whether there was illegality in arrest and whether appellant should be allowed regular bai.

The Court said, “On bail, we have discussed briefly. Basic principle is...issue is of liberty...integral to sensitized judicial process. Prolonged incarceration amounts to unjust deprivation of liberty.”

“As new witnesses and accused have been named, it is unlikely for trial to get completed on time,” the court said.

“Appellant satisfies condition for grant of bail. Bail, allowed,” the court said.

The court declined to interfere in the legality of arrest and the criminal appeal challenging legality of arrest.

Justice Kant said we have noted that CBI in their application recorded reasons as to why they deemed necessary to arrest him, there is no violation…, and the appellant's arrest does not suffer from illegality.

"The CBI is a premier investigating agency. No indication has to be sent that the probe was not carried out properly. CBI should be perceived as a caged parrot,” Justice Bhuyan said.

“It's in public interest that CBI must be seen to be above... effort must be made to remove the perception that investigation is not carried out fairly. In a democracy, perception matters," Justice Bhuyan said.

Justice Surya Kant while imposing the conditions of bail directed that Kejriwal shall not make any public comments about this case and be present for all hearings before trial court, unless exempted.

Justice Bhuyan said that the conditions imposed earlier by the coordinate bench while granting interim bail in the Enforcement Directorate case will apply in this case too.

Earlier on July 12, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta had granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the money laundering case registered by ED over the alleged Delhi Liquor Policy scam, and directed that Kejriwal shall not visit the CM office and Delhi Secretariat during the period of interim release.

This would mean that even after stepping out of Tihar jail on Friday, Kejriwal cannot visit the office of the Chief Minister and Delhi Secretariat.

Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on the night of March 12, from his official residence on charges of illegality in formulating Delhi's New Excise Policy.

Other co-accused in the liquor policy case, Manish Sisodia, K Kavitha, Vijay Nair and Sanjay Singh have also been granted bail by the Supreme Court this year.

The Delhi High Court also recently granted bail to other suspects Sameer Mahendru, Chanpreet Singh and Arun Pillai.

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