A Delhi court on Friday released all 23 accused in the RBI tax policy case or the alleged liquor scam case, including former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and former MP CM Manish Sisodia – leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The CBI decided to appeal to the Supreme Court against the lower court ruling with immediate effect, saying several aspects of the investigation were either ignored or not properly considered.
After the court’s decision, Kejriwal was seen breaking down while speaking to reporters.
“I am not corrupt. The court said that Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia are honest,” he said and burst into tears. He added that the excise issue was the biggest political conspiracy in the history of independent India.
Special Judge Jitendra Singh passed the order. The court said that it did not find any material at all against the defendants to support the prosecution’s evidence.
A Delhi court has refused to take cognizance of the chargesheet issued by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the tax policy-related corruption case.
Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia were among those arrested in the case in which the CBI was probing allegations of corruption in the formulation and implementation of the tax policy imposed by the previous AAP government, which has now been scrapped.
Kejriwal and Sisodia were arrested when they were chief minister and deputy chief minister respectively in Delhi.
“Court order proves that Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party”Katar Imandar‘ [dead honest]Kejriwal said after the order.
A Delhi court in January had previously acquitted Kejriwal in two cases filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over allegations of skipping summons issued by the federal agency during its investigation into the Delhi excise policy case.
The CBI filed its first indictment in 2022, followed by several supplemental indictments. The agency claimed so $Rs 100 crore was paid by a ‘southern lobby’ to influence the scrapped tax policy in its favour.
In total, 23 accused have been charged, including Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, K Kavitha, Kuldeep Singh, Narender Singh, Vijay Nair, Abhishek Bowenpally, Arun Ramchandra Pillai, Mutha Gautam, Sameer Mahendru, Amandeep Singh Dhal, Arjun Pandey, Puchibabu Gurnatla, Rakesh Joshi and Damodar. Prasad Sharma, Prince Kumar, Shanpreet Singh Rayat, Arvind Kumar Singh, Durgesh Pathak, Amit Arora, Vinod Chauhan, Ashish Mathur and P Sarath Chadra Reddy, according to a report by news agency ANI.
