New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday deferred till September 5 hearing on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s pleas seeking bail and challenging the arrest by the CBI in the alleged excise policy scam.

A bench of justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan allowed the CBI to file its counter affidavit in the matter and gave two days’ time to Kejriwal to file a rejoinder.

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, said the CBI filed a counter affidavit in only one of the pleas and it was served upon them at 8 pm on Thursday.

ASG SV Raju said they will file the counter in another plea in one week.

The bench then posted the matter for further hearing on September 5.

Kejriwal has filed two separate petitions challenging the denial of bail and against his arrest by the CBI in the case. He has challenged the August 5 orders of the Delhi High Court.

On August 14, the top court refused to grant interim bail to Kejriwal in the case and sought a response from the probe agency on his plea challenging his arrest. Kejriwal was arrested by the CBI on June 26.

The Delhi High Court had on August 5 upheld the arrest of the chief minister as legal, and said there was no malice in the acts done by the CBI which was able to demonstrate how the AAP supremo could influence witnesses who could muster the courage to depose only after his arrest.

The high court had asked him to move the trial court for regular bail in the CBI case.