A Delhi court has discharged former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, and 21 other accused in the Delhi excise policy case, delivering strong criticism of the prosecution’s case and concluding that the allegations failed to meet even the minimum legal threshold required for a trial. The Rouse Avenue Court stated that serious criminal accusations must be supported by credible and substantive material evidence rather than assumptions or narrative-based claims.
In its order, the court observed that attributing a central conspiratorial role to the accused could not be sustained on the basis of the evidence placed on record. It emphasised that unsupported allegations risk undermining public confidence in constitutional offices and warned that prosecutions must be grounded in demonstrable facts. The judge further held that there was no material indicating the existence of an overarching conspiracy or criminal intent behind the now-scrapped liquor policy introduced by the former Aam Aadmi Party government.
The court also expressed concern over investigative practices, cautioning against reliance on turning an accused into an approver merely to expand the scope of allegations. It noted that using statements from pardoned individuals to fill investigative gaps or implicate additional persons would violate constitutional principles and compromise the fairness of the criminal justice process. As a result, the court declined to take cognisance of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s chargesheet, citing lack of sufficient evidence to proceed.
All 23 accused in the case were discharged, effectively bringing proceedings at the trial court level to a close for now. The judgment also directed a departmental inquiry against the CBI’s investigating officer, pointing to serious lapses identified during the investigation. The case had centred on alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi excise policy, which investigators claimed involved wrongdoing during its rollout.
Following the verdict, Kejriwal appeared emotional while addressing supporters, stating that the judgment reaffirmed his honesty. The case had significant personal consequences for the accused, with Sisodia spending approximately 530 days in custody and Kejriwal remaining jailed for 156 days across two separate periods before obtaining bail. Kejriwal was released in September 2024 after the Supreme Court granted him bail in the CBI matter, having earlier received interim relief in a parallel case investigated by the Enforcement Directorate.
