A Delhi court on Friday acquitted former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his then deputy Manish Sisodia, and others, including K Kavitha, Bijay Nair and Durgesh Pathak, in the alleged excise policy scam.
Excise Policy Case Dismissed
The Rouse Avenue Court ruled that there was no evidence of criminal conspiracy or wrongdoing in the formulation of the excise policy. Special Judge (PC Act) Jitender Singh passed the order closing the case initiated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against all the accused.
“There was no overarching conspiracy or criminal intent in the excise policy,” the judge said.
The case originated from a complaint by L-G VK Saxena in 2022 to the CBI, which subsequently registered a First Information Report. The probe agency alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leaders received kickbacks from liquor manufacturers due to manipulation of the policy.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Delhi government had implemented the new excise policy on November 17, 2021, but scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption.
Probe agencies alleged the profit margin of wholesalers was increased from 5 per cent to 12 per cent under the new policy, and that the policy resulted in cartelisation and favoured those ineligible for liquor licences for monetary benefits. Sisodia denied any wrongdoing, claiming the new policy would have increased city government revenue.
The court held that the excise policy case did not disclose any larger conspiracy or criminal intent, finding that the prosecution’s case failed to withstand judicial scrutiny. The CBI was found to have attempted to build a conspiracy narrative based largely on conjecture.
The court found no prima facie case was established against any of the 23 accused. It also criticised the agency’s reliance on approver statements, cautioning that such an approach undermines constitutional safeguards. Granting pardon to an accused and then using that person’s testimony to bridge investigative gaps or implicate additional persons was deemed improper, and a violation of constitutional principles.
The judge recommended a departmental inquiry against CBI officials for naming a public servant, Kuldeep Singh, as the primary accused in the case.
All 23 accused were discharged. They are:
- Kuldeep Singh
- Narender Singh
- Vijay Nair
- Abhishek Boinpally
- Arun Ramchandra Pillai
- Mootha Goutam
- Sameer Mahendru
- Manish Sisodia
- Amandeep Singh Dhall
- Arjun Pandey
- Butchibabu Gorantla
- Rajesh Joshi
- Damodar Prasad Sharma
- Prince Kumar
- Arvind Kumar Singh
- Chanpreet Singh Rayat
- K Kavitha
- Arvind Kejriwal
- Durgesh Pathak
- Amit Arora
- Vinod Chauhan
- Ashish Chand Mathur
- Sarath Chandra Reddy
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