Liquor Policy Case | Trial Court's Findings On Witnesses In Kejriwal Discharge Order 'Prima Facie Erroneous' : Delhi High Court
The Delhi High Court on Monday said that the trial court observations made while discharging AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and all other accused in the liquor policy case regarding statements of witnesses and the approvers, at charge stage, are “prima facie erroneous and need consideration.”
For context, the trial court had found that allegations against Kejriwal were based on statements of co-accused or witnesses, but there was no independent corroboration connecting him to any criminal conspiracy.
Moreover, it had observed that the CBI repeatedly re-record statements of the approver over an extended period, "ostensibly to fill gaps, improve the prosecution narrative, implicate additional accused, or artificially weave missing links in the chain of circumstances.”
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma today said, "certain factual discrepancies pointed out in the impugned order, the observations made by the learned Trial Court regarding statements of the witnesses and the approvers, at the stage of charge itself, prima facie appear erroneous, and need consideration."
The judge added that scathing remarks made against the CBI Investigating Officer that he abused his official position to conduct unfair investigation, are prima facie “foundationally misconceived especially when made at the stage of charge itself.”
“In view of the aforesaid, the observations limited only qua the Investigating Officer are stayed, till the next date of hearing, including the direction recommending departmental action against him,” the Court said.
Justice Sharma issued notice on CBI's plea against the discharge of all the accused in the case.
In the meantime, the Court requested the Trial Court where the proceedings on money laundering are pending, to adjourn the case to a date, later than the date fixed before the High Court, and await the outcome of CBI's plea.
On February 27, the trial court discharged all the 23 accused persons in the case, including political leaders Kejriwal, Sisodia and K Kavitha.
All who have been discharged are Kuldeep Singh, Narender Singh, Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Pillai, Mootha Gautam, Sameer Mahendru, Manish Sisodia, Amandeep Singh Dhall, Arjun Pandey, Butchibabu Gorantla, Rajesh Joshi, Damodar Prasad Sharma, Prince Kumar, Arvind Kumar Singh, Chanpreet Singh, K Kavitha, Arvind Kejriwal, Durgesh Pathak, Amit Arora, Vinod Chauhan, Ashish Chand Mathur and Sarath Reddy.
The Trial Court, in strong words, had rapped the CBI for lapses in investigation and said that the “voluminous chargesheet” has many lacunae not supported by any witness or statement.
It said that the CBI failed to make out a prima facie case against Sisodia. The Special CBI Judge had added Kejriwal was implicated without any cogent material.
For context, Sisodia was in jail for approximately 530 days.
Arvind Kejriwal spent approximately 156 days in jail across two periods. He was finally released on September 13, 2024, after the Supreme Court granted him bail in the CBI case, having already received interim bail in the ED case.
The excise policy was framed by the Delhi Government to boost revenue and reform liquor trade in 2021, which was later withdrawn after allegations of irregularities in implementation were made and Lieutenant-Governor Vinay Kumar Saxena ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the policy.
This policy – which sought to completely privatise liquor trade in the national capital – was used to grant undue advantage to private entities at the cost of the public exchequer and smacked of corruption, the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation claimed.
Manish Sisodia was first arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a case related to the excise policy on February 26, 2023 and later by the Enforcement Directorate on March 9, 2023. In the first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI, Sisodia and others have been accused of being instrumental in 'recommending' and 'taking decisions' regarding the 2021-22 excise policy, “without the approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licensee post tender”.
The central agency also claimed that the AAP leader was arrested because he gave evasive replies and refused to cooperate with the investigation, despite being confronted with evidence.
The AAP chief (Kejriwal) was formally arrested by CBI on June 26, 2024, while he was in custody of the Enforcement Directorate in the money laundering case arising out of the alleged liquor policy scam.