SRINAGAR: A Delhi court on Friday discharged former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and 21 others in the alleged excise policy case after refusing to take cognisance of the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Special Judge Jitendra Singh held that the prosecution failed to place material establishing a prima facie case against the accused. According to Live Law, the court found no cogent evidence against Kejriwal and no material linking Sisodia or the other accused to criminal wrongdoing.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi government’s excise policy, which was subsequently withdrawn. The court observed that the chargesheet contained assertions not corroborated by evidence or witness testimony.
“The chargesheet suffers from internal contradictions, striking at the root of the conspiracy theory,” the court said, as reported by Live Law. It held that allegations against Kejriwal could not be sustained in the absence of substantiating material and that implicating an individual without cogent evidence was inconsistent with the rule of law.
With respect to Sisodia, the court recorded that there was no material demonstrating his involvement and no incriminating recovery from him. It further held that the prosecution had not established an overarching conspiracy or criminal intent in the policy decision.
The court also examined the investigative approach adopted by the CBI and observed that reliance on approver statements to fill gaps in the case was impermissible. It stated that granting pardon to an accused and subsequently using such testimony to implicate others would violate constitutional principles.
Among those discharged is K Kavitha, president of Telangana Jagruthi. The court also discharged Kuldeep Singh, Narender Singh, Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Ramchandra Pillai, Mootha Goutam, Sameer Mahendru, Amandeep Singh Dhall, Arjun Pandey, Butchibabu 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 Chandra Reddy.
The court concluded that the prosecution’s case did not withstand judicial scrutiny.
