Delhi Rouse Avenue Court has given a big relief to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by granting him bail in the money laundering case related to the excise policy. Kejriwal is the second politician arrested in this case to get bail. Earlier, the Supreme Court had granted bail to MP Sanjay Singh.

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Vacation Judge Niya Bindu passed this order after hearing Kejriwal and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for two days. Earlier, he had reserved the decision after hearing the arguments of both the sides during the day. He had made it clear yesterday that he would give the decision immediately after the completion of the debate as this case is high profile.

After the court pronounced the order on Thursday evening, the ED requested whether the signing of the bail bond could be postponed for 48 hours so that the order could be challenged before the appellate court. The court rejected their request and refused to stay the order. The trial court said that the bail bond has to be presented before the duty judge tomorrow.

In its order, the court has accepted Kejriwal's bail on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh.

Kejriwal was granted bail by the Supreme Court to campaign in the Lok Sabha elections. After that he surrendered on June 2.

The court considered the argument of defense lawyer Vikram Chaudhary that there is no evidence of ED's allegations. Chaudhary had argued that is ED an independent agency or playing into the hands of some political masters? ED draws all its conclusions on the basis of hypothesis ... If they are still collecting material then it is an endless investigation. They say that I am the national convener of AAP and hence I am responsible for everything done by the party. There is nothing that shows that AAP ever received Rs 45 crore. All this is in the realm of speculation, prejudices and assumptions. They are still making arrests and assessments, but keep giving statements that a bribe of Rs 100 crore was received.

He had said that Kejriwal should be given the same freedom as any other person. Chaudhary said do not treat me like a special person. I don't want to be treated like a special person. But treat me the way you treat any normal person.

Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 on charges that he was part of a conspiracy to deliberately leave loopholes in the now-expired Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 to benefit certain liquor sellers.

The ED has alleged that the bribes received from liquor sellers were used for the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) election campaign in Goa and Kejriwal, being the party's national convener, is personally and vicariously liable for the offence of money laundering. Kejriwal has denied the allegations and accused the ED of running an extortion racket.