Today, On 27th February, A Delhi court dismissed all charges against 23 individuals in the excise policy case, including Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, and K Kavitha. The Court ruled, “There was no overarching conspiracy or criminal intent in the excise policy.”
A Delhi court dismissed all charges against the 23 individuals implicated in the Delhi excise policy case, including former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and Telangana Jagruthi president K Kavitha.
Special Judge Jitender Singh issued the ruling, closing the case initiated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The Court ruled,
“There was no overarching conspiracy or criminal intent in the excise policy,”
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The ruling emphasized that the prosecution failed to withstand judicial scrutiny, as the CBI attempted to construct a conspiracy narrative based solely on conjecture. As a result, the Court concluded that no prima facie case was established against any of the defendants.
The Court also reprimanded the CBI for relying on statements from approvers.
The judge said,
“If such conduct is allowed, it would be a grave violation of the Constitutional principles. The conduct where an accused is granted pardon and then made an approver, his statements used to fill the gaps in the investigation/narrative and make additional people accused is wrong,”
Additionally, the Court indicated it would recommend a departmental inquiry into the CBI officials who designated a public servant, Kuldeep Singh, as the primary accused.
The CBI had charged the following individuals in connection with the case:
- Kuldeep Singh
- Narender Singh
- Vijay Nair
- Abhishek Boinpally
- Arun Ramchandra Pillai
- Mootha Goutam
- Sameer Mahendru
- Manish Sisodia
- Amandeep Singh Dhall
- Arjun Pandey
- Butchibabu Gorantla
- Rajesh Joshi
- Damodar Prasad Sharma
- Prince Kumar
- Arvind Kumar Singh
- Chanpreet Singh Rayat
- Kavitha Kalvakuntal (K. Kavitha)
- Arvind Kejriwal
- Durgesh Pathak
- Amit Arora
- Vinod Chauhan
- Ashish Chand Mathur
- Sarath Chandra Reddy
The case emerged in 2022 when the CBI filed a First Information Report (FIR) alleging that the 2021-22 Delhi Excise Policy had been manipulated to enable monopolization and cartelization in the liquor trade.
This investigation was prompted by a complaint from Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on July 20, 2022. The CBI claimed that leaders from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) received kickbacks from liquor manufacturers due to the policy’s manipulation.
Subsequently, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also initiated a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The situation led to numerous arrests of opposition figures, which some criticized as politically motivated. Allegations surfaced that a criminal conspiracy had been formulated by AAP leaders, including Sisodia and Kejriwal, along with various unnamed private entities during the policy’s development stage.
It was claimed that intentional loopholes were created in the policy to benefit specific liquor licensees and conspirators after the tender process.
Many of the political leaders spent significant time in jail, as bail requests were denied by the Rouse Avenue Court and the Delhi High Court. It was only later that the Supreme Court granted them relief.
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