Delhi liquor policy case: HC stays trial court’s adverse observations about CBI

The Delhi High Court on Monday stayed the adverse observations made by a trial court about the Central Bureau of Investigation while discharging all 23 accused, including Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, in the liquor policy case, Bar and Bench reported.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma also directed the trial court to postpone hearings in the connected money-laundering case until the High Court decides the CBI’s revision petition challenging the discharge order.

The High Court also issued notice to the accused persons and asked them to file their replies to the CBI’s revision plea, Bar and Bench reported.

On February 27, a special court at the Rouse Avenue Courts discharged all the accused in the corruption case related to the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy. The court had criticised the CBI for implicating Kejriwal and Sisodia without any cogent material and said the chargesheet contained several gaps not supported by witnesses or statements.

The trial court had also said it would recommend a departmental inquiry against CBI officials who made a public servant the accused number one in the case. It had said that there was no overarching conspiracy or criminal intent behind the excise policy.

During Monday’s hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, said the agency was not seeking a stay on the discharge of the accused for now, but only a direction that the trial court’s order should not affect the separate money laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate.

Mehta also argued that the excise policy had been “manipulated” to facilitate certain traders and that the CBI had traced the money trail. However, he said the trial court discharged the accused without considering the corroborative material on record, Live Law reported.

“This is one of the biggest scams in the history of the capital of this nation and in my opinion a national shame,” Bar and Bench quoted Mehta as saying. “Scientific investigation was carried out. Each and every aspect of conspiracy was established.”

The High Court will hear the matter next on March 16.

Liquor policy case

The CBI had alleged irregularities in the Delhi government’s liquor excise policy, which has since been scrapped. Based on the CBI case, the Enforcement Directorate also launched an investigation into allegations of money-laundering.

The two central agencies alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party government at the time modified the liquor policy by increasing the commission for wholesalers from 5% to 12%. This allegedly facilitated the receipt of bribes from wholesalers who had a substantial market share and turnover.

The party had denied the allegations.

Sisodia, who was the Delhi deputy chief minister at the time, was arrested in February 2023 by the CBI on charges of corruption in connection with the case. A month later, he was arrested by the ED in the same case.

Kejriwal, the Delhi chief minister at the time, had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in March 2024.

The AAP chief spent around five months in jail in two separate periods. He was finally released in September 2024 after the Supreme Court granted him bail in the CBI case, having already received interim bail in the ED case. Sisodia was in jail for around 17 months before securing bail.

Also Read:

• Lapses in probe, no proof: What court said while acquitting Kejriwal, Sisodia in excise policy case

• Why a court held CBI’s corruption case against Kejriwal was so flimsy it could not even go to trial