NEW DELHI, Feb. 28 -- The politically sensitive Delhi liquor policy case, which sent Aam Aadmi Party's top leaders, including chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, to jail and shook its electoral fortunes in the assembly polls last year has taken another twist as a Delhi court on Friday gave Kejriwal, his ex-deputy Manish Sisodia and 21 others a clean chit.
The court said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case lacks foundation and is based almost entirely on conjecture. Special judge Jitendra Singh slammed the CBI as he said the entire case was based on conjecture and surmise, lacking any admissible evidence.
He said that the probe agency portrayed a rational picture, but evaluation showed facts were arranged to back a predetermined conclusion. The court even went on to state that the CBI's theory was "economically illiterate". It heavily came down on the investigating officer for showing complete disregard for facts and ordered departmental action against him.
Kejriwal, the country's first sitting chief minister to be arrested while in office, fought hard to contain his emotions after being cleared of all charges in the excise policy case that had come to define his political life for nearly two years.
AAP leaders heaved a sigh of relief after being cleared of corruption charges relating to the 2021-22 Delhi liquor policy, closing a case that had hung over the heads of Kejriwal and his former deputy Sisodia for nearly two years.
"There was no overarching conspiracy or criminal intent in the policy,'' the court ruled. A tearful Kejriwal whose 2025-re-election campaign largely confined to firefighting liquor policy and "sheeshmahal'' corruption attacks from the BJP, told reporters, "I always used to say that the truth is with us.'' Kejriwal said the corruption case against him was the "biggest political conspiracy" in the history of Independent India.
Among the 21 people cleared in the case that became a political hot potato is Telangana Jagruthi president K Kavitha.
Hours after the verdict by special judge Jitendra Singh, the CBI filed an appeal challenging it in the Delhi High Court. Several aspects of the investigation were either ignored or not considered adequately, a spokesperson of the agency said in response to the scathing criticism by the trial court.
Addressing a press conference later in the day, he said they will file an application in a court for discharge in connection with the cases registered by the Enforcement Directorate as well.
While Kejriwal was in jail for six months in the case, Sisodia was behind bars for almost two years. The CBI has been probing alleged corruption in the formulation and execution of the erstwhile AAP government's now scrapped excise policy.
The Delhi court was unsparing in its criticism of the federal probe agency.
"The chargesheet suffers from internal contradictions, striking at the root of conspiracy theory," Justice Singh said.
The court said, "The excise policy case, as sought to be projected by the CBI, is wholly unable to survive judicial scrutiny and stands discredited in its entirety."
"Investigation appears to have proceeded on a predetermined trajectory, implicating virtually every person associated with the formulation or implementation of the policy in order to lend an illusion of depth and credibility to an otherwise fragile narrative," it said in the 598-page judgement.
According to the judge, in the absence of any evidence, the allegations against Kejriwal could not be sustained and the former chief minister was implicated without any cogent evidence. This, the judge said, was inconsistent with the rule of law.
This court, he said, has no hesitation in holding that the material placed on record does not disclose even a prima facie case, much less any grave suspicion, against any of the accused persons.
The judge said the endeavour to further connect such allegations to the Goa Assembly elections, to project, layering, and utilisation of alleged proceeds of crime, rests more on inference and assumption than on legally sustainable material.
"Once the formulation of the (excise) policy is shown to be the product of deliberation, institutional scrutiny, and procedural compliance, any subsequent attempt to attribute criminality to its implementation becomes wholly untenable," he said.
The judge said the case's very foundation - the allegation of payment of upfront money and its purported recoupment - stands fundamentally eroded.
"In the absence of a tainted policy or demonstrably unlawful implementation, the prosecution theory is reduced to conjecture. Private persons who sought to derive commercial advantage from a policy validly framed and lawfully implemented . cannot be compelled to face the rigours of criminal prosecution," his judgement read.
"Though there was no statutory or constitutional requirement mandating the obtaining of suggestions from the lieutenant governor, the file notings unmistakably reflect that such suggestions were nevertheless sought, examined, and incorporated.
The procedural integrity of the policy-making process thus stands affirmed from the documentary record itself," it said.
The court also recommended a departmental inquiry against the investigating officer (IO) of the CBI for arraying a public servant as an accused.
Expressing surprise at how, in the absence of incriminating material, public servants, including Singh, were arrayed as accused, and how the sanction for their prosecution was accorded, the judge said, "The manner in which the investigation has been conducted, far from conforming to the discipline of a fair and lawful investigation, discloses a calculated and sustained assault on the foundational tenets of the rule of law."
He said it is "troubling" that an individual was retained in the column of suspects and simultaneously, presented as a prosecution witness at the stage of filing the chargesheet.
"This self-contradictory stance cannot be brushed aside as a mere procedural irregularity. It betrays a conscious and calculated stratagem by which the investigating officer has sought to keep the narrative deliberately fluid, relying upon the individual's statement to prop up the prosecution case, while at the same time, preserving the option of implicating that very person should the case, as projected, fail to withstand judicial scrutiny," the judge said.
He said such dual positioning unmistakably revealed that the IO, from the outset, was conscious of the "inherent fragility of the allegations being advanced and apprehensive that the version placed before the court might not survive close judicial examination".
"An IO is not expected to act with tactical cleverness or strategic flexibility, he is required to proceed with candour, neutrality and unwavering fidelity to the factual record.
"An investigation must rest on a clear, consistent and principled assessment of the material collected, and not on calculated ambiguity intended to preserve future prosecutorial options," the judge said.
Political reactions to the court's order also came thick and fast. The Congress took the opportunity to hit out at the BJP, calling it a "shape-shifter, a wishful serpent -- Icchadhari Naag".
"Elections are coming. So the script is predictable. Cases against Congress leaders will suddenly accelerate -- P Chidambaram has already been dragged back into the spotlight because Tamil Nadu is going for polls. Meanwhile, proceedings against their convenient 'allies' in the AAP and others will quietly vanish in light of the Gujarat and Punjab elections," Congress leader Pawan Khera said.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said truth and justice stood firmly with Kejriwal, and that no allegation could be so big that it shrouded the truth.
"Today, every honest person will breathe a sigh of relief, while the BJP supporters must be writhing in deep shame. The BJP has betrayed the residents of Delhi," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.
The Left also came out in support of Kejriwal. CPI General Secretary D Raja said the discharge proved that the BJP has reduced federal probe agencies to "instruments of political vendetta".
Asked about the court discharging Kejriwal, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said it is a "technical matter" and the party will come up with a "structured response" on the court's judgment, after studying it.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.