Excise case: Delhi court discharges Kejriwal and Sisodia; CBI moves HC

Delhi court discharges Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and 21 others in the excise policy case, a major boost for AAP after poll losses

A Delhi court discharged former Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy CM Manish Sisodia and 21 others in the excise policy case on Friday. With this, Kejriwal, who was facing political oblivion after a loss in the Delhi Assembly polls in February last year, received a shot in the arm.

 

The court said the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI’s) case could not survive judicial scrutiny and was discredited entirely. The CBI has been probing alleged corruption in the formulation and execution of the now scrapped excise policy by the erstwhile AAP government in Delhi.  Later in the day, the CBI filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court challenging the verdict. Its spokesperson said the lower court's verdict ignored several aspects of the investigation. 

Minutes after the court delivered its verdict, a teary eyed Kejriwal told reporters, “The court has proved that Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and the AAP are ‘kattar imaandar’ (honest)”. He alleged that the ‘conspiracy’ in the excise case was hatched to finish off the AAP at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. 

After ruling Delhi for two successive five-year terms, the AAP lost the Assembly polls in February 2025, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress levelling allegations of corruption, including in the excise policy case, against Kejriwal and the AAP government, and which became the primary campaign planks. 

Questioning the timing of the verdict, Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav said such acquittals often coincide with the Assembly polls, given that the Gujarat Assembly elections are approaching.

 

However, other Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party, welcomed the acquittals. They alleged that the court’s ruling was an evidence of the Centre’s misuse of probe agencies. 

 

Following the acquittal of the AAP leadership, the BJP stated that Delhi’s electorate has already given Kejriwal and AAP a “political response on political grounds.” The BJP termed the acquittals a ‘technical matter’, which the CBI would continue to pursue.  

 

By February-March 2027, there are elections scheduled in Punjab and Goa. In Punjab, the AAP is the ruling party, and the Congress is its principal rival. There are also elections in Goa, where the AAP has emerged as a significant player to the Congress’ chagrin. Elections are due later in the year in Gujarat, where the AAP dented the Congress in the 2022 Assembly polls, and also in Himachal Pradesh, where the AAP sought to create a base in the last round of Assembly polls.

 

Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi alleged that hundreds of mobile phones and SIM cards, evidence in the case, were destroyed. “Now, why were those destroyed and how that led to the lack of evidence in the case, the CBI will look into such technical issues and decide its next course of action,” Trivedi said. When asked about the charges Kejriwal levelled against Modi and Shah, the BJP spokesperson said that it was Congress’ Ajay Maken who had first held a press conference on the ‘liquor scam’ accusing the previous AAP government in Delhi.

 

Social activist Anna Hazare also welcomed the discharge of Kejriwal, saying the court’s verdict must be accepted as judiciary is supreme and advised Kejriwal to work for the society and the country, and not to think of himself or about his party.

 

Among the 21 people given a clean chit in the case is Telangana Jagruthi president K Kavitha, who expressed relief over being discharged in the Delhi excise policy case. “Satyamev Jayate (truth alone triumphs). This (case) was a web of lies. Judiciary has cut right through it,” she told reporters in Hyderabad.

 

In his verdict, special judge Jitendra Singh said, “This court 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. Accordingly, Accused Nos 1-23 are discharged of all the offences alleged against them in the present case,” special judge Jitendra Singh said.

 

In his order, Singh said the investigation appears to have proceeded on a predetermined trajectory, implicating virtually every person associated with the formulation or implementation of the policy to lend an illusion of depth and credibility to an otherwise fragile narrative.

 

The judge said that 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.

 

Kejriwal was in jail for six months in the case, his associate Sisodia was behind bars for almost two years. The AAP-run Delhi government introduced the new excise policy in November 2021. The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate registered cases for alleged irregularities in the policy in August 2022, and the Delhi government scrapped the policy the next month. With the Lok Sabha polls looming, the ED arrested Kejriwal in March 2024. He got bail to campaign briefly during the Lok Sabha polls, and then again in September from the Supreme Court after the CBI had arrested him in July. He quit as the Delhi CM in September 2024 with AAP leader Atishi succeeding him. The AAP lost the Delhi Assembly polls in February 2025, with Kejriwal losing his seat to the BJP’s Parvesh Varma.