New Delhi: A court here Friday discharged Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the case related to the Delhi liquor policy.
Special Judge Jitendra Singh of Rouse Avenue Courts also discharged former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in the case, along with 21 other accused persons, citing lack of cogent material to prove the case.
The court also rapped the CBI for filing a “voluminous charge sheet” which it said did not support any of the witness statements and suffered from “internal contradictions”.
“The charge of manipulation can’t stand. The policy travelled through established constitutional channels. The structure of the policy doesn’t constitute any offence. The record reflects institutional deliberation,” the judge said, while also recommending a departmental inquiry against the investigation officer (IO) in the case.
The CBI had alleged that Kejriwal was the “sutradhaar” of the alleged excise policy scam. According to its FIR, which ThePrint accessed, the agency submitted in court that the accused were instrumental in “recommending and taking decisions pertaining to excise policy for the year 2021-22 without the approval of the competent authority, with an intention to extend undue favours to the licensees post tender”.
Among allegations against Sisodia and other Delhi government officials was that they granted undue financial favours to vendors who secured liquor licenses, thereby causing losses of “over Rs 140 crore” to the exchequer.
The ED too had registered a case in the matter to probe the money laundering aspect of the case. In its chargesheet, the agency said the now-scrapped liquor policy “prompted cartel formations through back door” and “incentivised other illegal activities” as part of an alleged criminal conspiracy by AAP leaders to extract kickbacks from liquor barons.
The chargesheet, seen by ThePrint, alleged that the rescinded liquor policy gave way to an “exorbitant profit margin of 12 percent and huge retail profit margin of 185 percent”.
Within two years of the CBI launching its probe into the now-withdrawn Delhi excise policy, 18 accused arrested by the ED too have been granted bail.
‘South Group’, a Rs 100 cr demand & leaked GoM report
Labelling Kejriwal as the main conspirator in the case, the CBI had told the court that the AAP leader met Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K. Kavitha and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy from Telugu Desam Party (TDP), to “discuss the liquor business”.
The CBI also said Vijay Nair, identified as a close associate of Kejriwal, was “contacting various liquor manufacturers and traders and demanding undue gratification since March 2021, for incorporation of provisions favourable to them in the upcoming Delhi Excise Policy for the year 2021-22”.
It was also alleged that Reddy met Kejriwal on 16 March 2021 at his office in the Delhi Secretariat and requested him for support vis-a-vis liquor vends in Delhi. During the meeting, Kejriwal assured Reddy of support and asked him to contact Kavitha, CBI alleged.
The CBI had also alleged that on 19 March 2021, Kavitha contacted Reddy over the phone and requested for a meeting in Hyderabad. Kavitha, it alleged, told him that Kejriwal spoke to her and asked her to give Rs 100 crore to AAP, and that she also told Reddy he should arrange for Rs 50 crore of the total sum as his contribution.
In addition to this the CBI had also alleged that Buchi Babu, CA of K. Kavitha, also allegedly had access to parts of the Group of Ministers (GoM) report on the Excise Policy 2021-22 two days before it was submitted it to the Council of Ministers of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi.
For more details on the CBI’s chargesheet, read this report from 26 June 2024.
Manish Sisodia: ‘Chief architect’
In a charge sheet detailing the role of AAP leader Manish Sisodia, the CBI called him the “chief architect” of the alleged conspiracy, while also claiming that he “pressured” excise officials when they did not grant a wholesale licence to one liquor manufacturer.
In addition to that, the CBI also alleged that some relevant documents including cabinet notes related to the policy and mobile phones which had communication relevant to the case, were destroyed, following which they invoked section 201 of the IPC, which pertains to “causing disappearance of evidence or giving false information to screen offender”.
In the chargesheet against Sisodia, CBI alleged that he “misused his powers to introduce favourable provisions in the new policy”. This, it claimed, was done to facilitate the monopolisation of wholesale and retail liquor trade by members of the ‘South Group’.
For more details on the CBI’s charges against Sisodia, read this report from 25 April 2023.
More on the Delhi excise policy case:
Read this report from 23 March 2024 about how ED alleged in court that Kejriwal was the ‘kingpin’ in the alleged liquor policy case and that he ‘generated proceeds of crime, used them for polls’.
Read this report from 2 February 2023 about how the ED in its chargesheet alleged AAP media and communications in-charge Vijay Nair received Rs 100 crore from the ‘South Group’.
Read this report from 11 February 2023 about the ‘South Group’ at the centre of the Delhi excise policy case.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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