A Delhi court on Friday discharged former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 21 others in the politically charged liquor policy case, saying the CBI’s case had failed to survive judicial scrutiny and stood discredited in its entirety.
An emotional Kejriwal, who was in jail for five months, told reporters outside the court that he was a victim of the “biggest political conspiracy in the history of Independent India”. Later at a media conference, he described himself, Sisodia, who had been in jail for 17 months, and the AAP as “kattar imaandar (staunchly honest)” and dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold fresh elections in Delhi, saying he would quit politics if the BJP won more than 10 seats.
The BJP’s successful campaign for the Delhi polls last year was centred around the liquor “scam” and the lavish renovation of Kejriwal’s bungalow, which the party dubbed “Sheesh Mahal”.
Among the 21 others discharged in the case are Telangana Jagruthi president and former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter, K. Kavitha, and AAP communications head Vijay Nair. AAP MP Sanjay Singh also went to jail during the probe but was not made an accused.
Later in the day, the CBI filed an appeal in Delhi High Court, challenging the special court’s order, officials said.
The trial court said the prosecution case did not disclose even the threshold of prima facie suspicion, far less the “grave suspicion” mandated by settled principles of criminal jurisprudence.
“This court has no hesitation in holding that the material placed on record does not disclose even a prima facie case, much less any grave suspicion, against any of the accused persons. Accordingly, Accused Nos 1-23 are discharged of all the offences alleged against them in the present case,” special judge Jitendra Singh said.
“Due to the absence of any admissible evidence, the prosecution case is rendered legally infirm, unsustainable and unfit to proceed any further in law,” the judge added.
“Stated differently, this court records that the theory of an overarching conspiracy, so emphatically projected, stands completely dismantled when tested against the evidentiary record,” Judge Singh said.
The CBI had been probing alleged corruption in the formulation and execution of the erstwhile AAP government’s now-scrapped excise policy. The court gave a clean chit to the AAP’s preparation of the excise policy, which reduced liquor prices and expanded retail, especially of premium brands.
In the 598-page order, the court said: “The material, as it presently stands, does not disclose a prima facie case of policy concealment, unilateralism or exclusion of the constitutional authority. On the contrary, the record reflects a process marked by consultation, communication and administrative caution.”
Judge Singh said the investigation appeared to have proceeded on a predetermined trajectory, implicating virtually every person associated with the formulation or implementation of the excise policy to “lend an illusion of depth and credibility to an otherwise fragile narrative”.
“A cumulative appraisal of the record further reveals an investigative approach marked by an attempt to stitch together disparate fragments so as to create an impression of a vast and complex conspiracy, unsupported by legally admissible material,” he said.
The judge said that the bid to further connect the allegations to the Goa Assembly elections by claiming the layering and utilisation of alleged proceeds of crime in the polls rests more on inference and assumption than on legally sustainable material.
Brushing aside the CBI’s arguments, the court observed that “the cumulative effect of that very evidence demolishes, rather than supports, the case sought to be built”.
“Once the formulation of the (excise) policy is shown to be the product of deliberation, institutional scrutiny, and procedural compliance, any subsequent attempt to attribute criminality to its implementation becomes wholly untenable,” he said.
The court ordered departmental proceedings against the investigating officer.
The court said the policy was framed to overcome the challenges faced by the earlier excise policy, including refinement of distribution margins, reflecting attempts to address monopolistic tendencies and regulatory leaks under the earlier regime.
It said the policy emerged during a period marked by unprecedented fiscal strain because of the pandemic, when state revenues suffered severe contraction owing to lockdown measures, while expenditure obligations expanded significantly to address public-health exigencies.
“The choice of an auction-based model, which ordinarily assures competitive bidding and potentially enhanced revenue realisation, cannot be divorced from that fiscal context. Policy formulation must be appreciated as a response to the economic realities prevailing at the relevant time,” the court said.
Sources said that in its appeal against the order, the CBI had flagged before the high court several points that the special court allegedly ignored and did not consider at the framing-of-charges stage.
“The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has decided to appeal in the high court against the judgment of the trial court immediately since several aspects of the investigation have either been ignored or not considered adequately,” a spokesperson for the agency had said in a statement earlier in the day.
In the evening, Kejriwal held a news conference at the AAP headquarters after arriving in an open-top car amidst drumbeats, crackers and Holi colours.
“I am not a politician. Politicians don’t care. Abuse them a few times. They have thick skin. I’ve only earned honesty in my life. It matters to me when someone calls me dishonest. When I’m sent to jail, when my family is taunted, it matters to me. Kejriwal cares. That’s why I decided to remain silent until I’m proven innocent before the entire country. Today, a huge burden has been lifted from my heart,” he said.
Referring to himself in the third person, Kejriwal said: “Now, there is only one way left for Modiji to deal with Kejriwal. Kejriwal will have to be killed.... There is another way.... I have built 500 schools in Delhi. You build 5,000 schools. I have improved Delhi’s roads. You improve the roads of the entire country, and see no one will even bother about Kejriwal. Kejriwal has built 200 mohalla clinics. You build 20,000 clinics.”
He added: “Modiji is unable to do these. This conspiracy is a result of Modiji and Amit Shahji’s lust for power.”
The AAP chief did not spare the Congress either, saying in response to a query on the party’s stand: “Kejriwal went to jail. Did Robert Vadra go to jail? Sanjay Singh went to jail. Did Rahul Gandhi go to jail? Manish Sisodia went to jail. Sonia Gandhi went to jail?... Congress members have no shame.”