New Delhi, February 27 In a major relief for the AAP's top leadership, a Delhi court on Friday acquitted former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his former deputy Manish Sisodia, and 21 others in the politically charged liquor policy case by refusing to take cognizance of the CBI chargesheet against them.
Among the 21 people given a clean chit in the case is Telangana Jagruthi president K Kavitha.
Special Judge Jitendra Singh criticized the CBI for lapses in the investigation, stating that there was no compelling evidence against Kejriwal, and there was no prima facie case against Sisodia and the other accused.
The CBI has been investigating alleged corruption in the formulation and execution of the erstwhile AAP government's now-scrapped excise policy.
Highlighting "some misleading allegations," the judge said in his strongly worded statement that the voluminous chargesheet had several loopholes that were not corroborated by evidence or witnesses.
"…The chargesheet suffers from internal contradictions, undermining the conspiracy theory," he said.
He stated that, in the absence of any evidence, the allegations against Kejriwal could not be sustained, and that the former chief minister was implicated without any compelling evidence.
This, the judge said, was inconsistent with the rule of law.
Regarding Sisodia, the judge said that there was no material on record showing his involvement, nor was any recovery made from him.
The court emphasized the absence of an overarching conspiracy or criminal intent in the excise policy while observing that the federal agency's case did not withstand judicial scrutiny, especially when the CBI sought to construct a narrative of conspiracy based on mere conjecture.
It also criticized the agency for building its case through testimonies from approvers.
"If such conduct is allowed, it would be a grave violation of Constitutional principles. The conduct where an accused is granted pardon and then made an approver, with his statements used to fill the gaps in the investigation/narrative and make additional people accused, is wrong," the court said.
The other accused who were acquitted are Kuldeep Singh, Narender Singh, Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Ramchandra Pillai, Mootha Goutam, Sameer Mahendru, Amandeep Singh Dhall, Arjun Pandey, Butchibabu Gornatla, Rakesh Joshi, Damodar Prasad Sharma, Prince Kumar, Chanpreet Singh Rayat, Arvind Kumar Singh, Durgesh Pathak, Amit Arora, Vinod Chauhan, Ashish Mathur, and P Sarath Chadra Reddy.