Corruption: AAP Exultant As CBI Rushes To Appeal Court Victory Of Kejriwal, Sisodia
NEW DELHI – The Aam Aadmi Party is currently experiencing a turbulent mixture of explosive anger and immense relief following a landmark court victory, even as the Central Bureau of Investigation scrambled to move the Delhi High Court to overturn the decision.
National convenor Arvind Kejriwal and his supporters have launched a fierce verbal offensive against the central government, characterizing the multi-year investigation as a failed attempt to dismantle their party. Meanwhile, federal investigators are working urgently to salvage the case after a trial judge dismantled their primary arguments.
The legal earthquake began when Special Judge Jitendra Singh of the Rouse Avenue Court issued a massive order exceeding 1,100 paragraphs that discharged all 23 accused individuals, including Kejriwal and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. The judge concluded that the evidence presented by the CBI was wholly unable to survive judicial scrutiny and stood discredited in its entirety.
After examining a voluminous record and the depositions of nearly 300 witnesses, the court found that no material existed to raise even a grave suspicion against the accused. The judge noted that forcing the group to face a full-fledged trial without legally admissible material would constitute a manifest miscarriage of justice and an abuse of the criminal process.
The roots of the controversy trace back to the Delhi Excise Policy 2021–22, which the AAP government introduced and later scrapped amid claims of corruption and kickbacks. While the CBI alleged that the policy was manipulated to provide undue favors to licensees at a loss to the public, the trial court rejected the theory of an overarching conspiracy.
The ruling stated that contemporaneous records showed the policy was actually the result of a consultative and deliberative exercise that followed proper legal procedures and stakeholder engagement. Following the announcement, a visible sense of vindication took hold at the court premises, where Sisodia was seen consoling an emotional Kejriwal.
In his first press conference after receiving the clean chit, an emotional Kejriwal adopted a defiant tone, claiming that the truth had finally prevailed. He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of hatching a sinister and wicked conspiracy to annihilate the Aam Aadmi Party.
Flanked by senior leaders like Sanjay Singh, Kejriwal demanded an apology from the central leadership for what he described as four years of malicious targeting and harassment through federal agencies. Kejriwal further asserted that his party would soon move to challenge the related Enforcement Directorate case, arguing that it can no longer hold water now that the predicate CBI case has been dismissed. (IANS)
Declaring himself and his colleagues as fundamentally honest, he dared the central government to conduct fresh Assembly elections to gauge the public reaction to the investigation. As the AAP prepares to take this momentum into the political arena, the CBI remains committed to its appeal, insisting that the discharge order must be reversed to address the alleged irregularities in the city liquor trade.
