A big relief to former Delhi Chief Minister Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal and his Ex-deputy Manish Sisodia were discharged from all alleged corruption and liquor scam by the Delhi court on Friday (February 27).
Special judge Jitender Singh of Rouse Avenue Courts slammed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for lapses in the investigation, lack of evidence and not supported by any witness or statement. The court also discharged all 23 accused persons in the case.
The Court said that the CBI failed to make out a prima facie case against Sisodia and added Kejriwal was implicated without any cogent material. The AAP chief (Kejriwal) was formally arrested by CBI on June 26, 2024, while he was in custody of the Enforcement Directorate in the money laundering case arising out of the alleged liquor policy scam.
Sisodia was in jail for approximately 530 days and Arvind Kejriwal spent approximately 156 days. The 23 discharged accused persons includes, Kuldeep Singh, Narender Singh, Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Pillai, Mootha Gautam, Sameer Mahendru, Manish Sisodia, Amandeep Singh Dhall, Arjun Pandey, Butchibabu Gorantla, Rajesh Joshi, Damodar Prasad Sharma, Prince Kumar, Arvind Kumar Singh, Chanpreet Singh, K Kavitha, Arvind Kejriwal, Durgesh Pathak, Amit Arora, Vinod Chauhan, Ashish Chand Mathur and Sarath Reddy.
The Court said that the chargesheet suffered from internal contradictions which strikes at the very root of the alleged conspiracy theory and has also ordered departmental inquiry against the CBI IO.
The case arose in 2022 when the Delhi government introduced a revised excise policy in 2021, saying it would boost revenues and reform the liquor trade. The policy also aimed to increase private participation. However, the liquor policy was withdrawn after irregularities were alleged, following which Lieutenant-Governor Vinay Kumar Saxena ordered a CBI probe.
Kejriwal, Sisodia and others were arrested as central agencies ED and CBI claimed the policy favored certain entities, causing financial losses and hinted at corruption. Senior Advocate Rebecca M John along with Advocate Vivek Jain appeared for Manish Sisodia and Senior Advocate N Hariharan and Advocate Mudit Jain appeared for Kejriwal.
According to sources, the CBI is likely to move the Delhi High Court challenging the Rouse Avenue Court judgment that discharged Kejriwal, Sisodia, K Kavitha and 20 other accused in the liquor policy case.