The Rouse Avenue Court on Friday acquitted former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the Delhi Excise Policy case. The court found that the alleged central conspiracy role could not be proved.
The court found that the allegations “did not stand judicial scrutiny” and found “no criminal intent” on the part of Manish Sisodia. The court further said that the conspiracy theory “cannot stand before a constitutional right.” Arvind’s wife Sunita Kejriwal expressed happiness over the verdict, posting, “No matter how powerful one becomes in this world, one cannot rise above Shiv Shakti. Truth always prevails.”
The CBI filed the first chargesheet in 2022, followed by several supplementary chargesheets. The agency has alleged that Rs 100 crore was paid by a “southern lobby” to influence the now-repealed excise policy in its favour.
Altogether, the chargesheet has been filed against 23 accused, including Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, K Kavita, Kuldeep Singh, Narendra Singh, Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpalli, Arun Ramchandra Pillai, Mutha Gautam, Sameer Mahendru, Amandeep Singh Dhall, Arjun Pandey, Buchibabu Gornatla, Rakesh Joshi, Damodar Prasad Sharma, Prince Kumar, Chanpreet Singh Rayat, Arvind Kumar Singh, Durgesh Pathak, Amit Arora, Vinod Chauhan, Ashish Mathur and P Sarath Chadra.
During the arguments, the CBI argued that the offense of criminal conspiracy should be viewed holistically and the sufficiency of the evidence should be examined during the trial. Represented by Additional Solicitor General DP Singh and advocate Manu Mishra, the agency argued that there was enough evidence to frame charges against all the accused.
On the other hand, senior advocate N Hariharan, appearing for Kejriwal, argued that there was no concrete evidence linking his client to the alleged conspiracy. He said the fourth supplementary chargesheet filed in Kejriwal’s name merely reframed the earlier allegations and that Kejriwal was discharging his official duties as chief minister.
Hariharan further said that Kejriwal’s name was neither in the initial chargesheet nor in the three supplementary chargesheets before that. His name appeared only in the fourth charge sheet. The defense also raised questions on the basis of further investigation and the evidentiary value of the statements of witnesses including Raghav Maganta.