Excise Policy case: Delhi Court closes CBI case against all 23 accused including Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia

A Delhi court on Friday discharged all 23 accused in the Delhi excise policy case including former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Telangana Jagruthi president K Kavitha..Special Judge (PC Act) Jitendra Singh passed the order closing the case initiated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the accused."There was no overarching conspiracy or criminal intent in the excise policy," the Court ruled. The Court added that the prosecution case does not survive judicial scrutiny as the CBI had tried to construct a narrative of conspiracy on the basis of mere conjecture. Thus, it concluded that no prima facie case was made out against any of the 23 accused. .The Court also pulled up the CBI for building its case through approver statements. "If such conduct is allowed, it would be a grave violation of the Constitutional principles. The conduct where an accused is granted pardon and then made an approver, his statements used to fill the gaps in the investigation/narrative and make additional people accused is wrong," the judge said.The Court further said that it will recommend a departmental inquiry against the CBI officials who made a public servant (Kuldeep Singh) accused number one in the case..The CBI had charge sheeted the following accused in the case,1) Kuldeep Singh 2) Narender Singh3) Vijay Nair4) Abhishek Boinpally 5) Arun Ramchandra Pillai 6) Mootha Goutam 7) Sameer Mahendru 8) Manish Sisodia 9) Amandeep Singh Dhall10) Arjun Pandey11) Butchibabu Gorantla12) Rajesh Joshi13) Damodar Prasad Sharma14) Prince Kumar15) Arvind Kumar Singh16) Chanpreet Singh Rayat17) Kavitha Kalvakuntal @ K.Kavitha18) Arvind Kejriwal19) Durgesh Pathak20) Amit Arora21) Vinod Chauhan22) Ashish Chand Mathur23) Sarath Chandra Reddy..The case arose in 2022 when the CBI registered a First Information Report (FIR) alleging that the Delhi Excise Policy of 2021-22 was manipulated to facilitate monopolisation and cartelisation of liquor trade in Delhi.The CBI case was registered on a complaint made by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on July 20, 2022. The probe agency said 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 later registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the matter.What followed was a series of arrests of opposition leaders, criticised by some quarters as being politically motivated.It was alleged that a criminal conspiracy was hatched by AAP leaders, including Sisodia and Kejriwal and other unidentified and unnamed private persons/entities at the stage of the policy’s formulation.The conspiracy, it was alleged, involved loopholes “intentionally” left or created in the policy. These loopholes were allegedly meant to favour some liquor licensees and conspirators post the tender process, it was claimed..The political leaders spent a considerable time in jail as the Rouse Avenue Court and the Delhi High Court denied them bail. It was the Supreme Court which later granted them relief..Additional Solicitor General and Special Public Prosecutor DP Singh, Senior Public Prosecutor Satish Kumar Garg and counsels Manu Mishra, Garima Saxena, Shreya Dutt Imaan Khera and Dig Vijay Singh appeared for the CBI. Arvind Kejriwal appeared through Senior Advocate N Hariharan with Mudit Jain, Mohd Irshad, Mohd Asgar Ali, Rudraksh Nakra, Ayush Goswami, Lakshya Aggarwal, Harjas Singh Gujral, Samta Sharma, Sona Singh, Vasudhra Raj Tyagi, Aman Akhtar, Arjun Singh Mandla, Vasundhara N, Punya Rekha Angora, Amaan Shreyas, Sana Singh and Mahima Malhotra.Manish Sisodia was represented by Senior Advocate Rebecca John along advocates with Vivek Jain, Sadiq Noor, Rohit Nair and Mohd Irshad.Durgesh Pathak was represented by Senior Advocate Mohit Mathur with Karan Sharma, Rajan Jain, Mohit Siwach, Harsh Gautam and Vignesh. Kuldeep Singh was represented by advocates SS Rana Naveen Kumar and Abhishek Mahal while Narender Singh appeared through Pardeep Rana, Gagan Bhatnagar, Tushar Rohmetra and Vibhor Choudhary. Vijay Nair was represented by Senior Advocate Madhav Khurana along with advocates Stuti Gujral Vrinda Bhandari Piyush Kumar Nishant Sharma Syed Miran Ahmad Vidushi Sabharwal Arjun V Harihar and Vipin KumarAbhishek Boinpally was represented by advocates Sumer Singh Boparai Surya Pratap Singh Abhilash Kumar Pathak Shubham Raj Anand and Sirhaan Seth. Arun Ramchandra Pillai appeared through Senior Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey with advocates Nitesh Rana, Joy Banerjee, Amrita Vatsa, Satyam Sharma, Aditi Singh, Aditya Narayan, Raksha Tripathi, Suyash Pandey, RB Siddhartha, Muskan Sharma, Yash Saxena, Samarth Panwar and Khushi Arora.Mootha Gautam was represented by Senior Advocate Maneka Guruswamy with advocates Shivendra Dwivedi, Onmichon Ramrar, Lavkesh Bhambani, Bhumika Yadav and Anmol Gupta.Sameer Mahandru was represented by advocates Dhruv Gupta, Anubhav Garg, and Yash Raj Mehran. Amandeep Singh Dhall was represented by Adit S Pujari, Shaswat Sarin, Shaurya Mittal and Dhanya Visweswaran, while Arjun Pandey appeared through Senior Advocate Shadan Farasat with Shivendra Dwivedi, Varisha Sharma and Onmichon Ramrar.Butchibabu Gorantla was represented by advocates Arshdeep Singh Khurana, Abhishek Singh, Talib Mustafa, Anmol Aggarwal, Ketan Kumar Roy, Vishvendra Tomar, Harsh Srivastava, Dikksha Ramnani and Chetan Nagpal. Rajesh Joshi, Damodar Prasad Sharma, Prince Kumar and Arvind Kumar Singh were represented by Rajat Bhardwaj and Dushyant Chaudhary.Chanpreet Singh Rayat was represented by Senior Advocate Ramesh Gupta with Shailendra Singh, Baani Khanna, Robin Singh, Kapil Balwani and Komal Thakkar.K Kavitha was represented by P Mohit Rao and Eugene S Philomene.Amit Arora was represented by Prabhav Ralli, Dev Vrat Arya, Samraat Saxena and Deeya Mittal.Vinod Chauhan was represented by Senior Advocate Rebecca M John along with Gagan Minocha, Tusharika Mattoo, Pravir and Shivani Sehrawat.Ashish Mathur appeared through Harsh Bora, Sahil Ghai and Aekansh Agarwal, while P Sarath Chandra Reddy was represented by Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa with Mayank Jain, Madhur Jain, Navlendu Kumar, Vivek Chandra Jaiswal, Sahil Yadav and Arpit Goel..[Read Judgment].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.