Delhi court discharges Kejriwal, Sisodia in Liquor Policy case
New Delhi, Feb 27: A Delhi Court on Friday discharged former Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal in the corruption case related to the alleged liquor policy scam.
Special Judge Jitender Singh of Rouse Avenue Courts also discharged AAP leader Manish Sisodia in the case.
Notably, the judge discharged all 23 accused persons in the matter.
The Court, in strong words, rapped the CBI for lapses in investigation and said that the “voluminous chargesheet” has many lacunae not supported by any witness or statement.
The Court said that the CBI failed to make out a prima facie case against Sisodia. The Judge added Kejriwal was implicated without any cogent material.
While pronouncing the verdict, the Court said that the CBI chargesheet running into thousands of pages included material which did not support any of the witness statements. The judge also said there were “misleading averments” in the chargesheet.
The chargesheet had lacunae not supported by any witnesses or evidence, the Court said.
While discharging the primary accused- Kuldeep Singh, the judge said it was surprising why he was implicated as the first accused when there was absolutely no material against him.
On Sisodia, who was accused of being the person responsible for formulation and implementation of the liquor policy, the Court said that there was no evidence showing his involvement and neither was there any recovery.
The Court said that the chargesheet suffered from internal contradictions which strikes at the very root of the alleged conspiracy theory.
Regarding Kejriwal, the judge concluded that he was implicated without any cogent material, a position which is inconsistent with the rule of law especially when it concerns a person who holds a constitutional post.
The judge said that in absence of fundamental material without any statement or evidence, the attribution of Kejriwal in the alleged conspiracy cannot be sustained.
Senior Advocate N Hariharan and Advocate Mudit Jain appeared for Kejriwal. (Live Law)
