Excise Case: Delhi Court To Consider CBI Chargesheet Against Arvind Kejriwal On Aug 12

A Delhi court on Tuesday posted for August 12 a matter to decide whether to take cognisance of a charge sheet filed by the CBI against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in alleged excise policy scam-related money laundering case.

Special judge Kaveri Baweja posted the matter after noting that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has not submitted the documents supporting the charge sheet.

Concluding its probe in the alleged Delhi Excise Policy scam, the CBI on Monday filed its final charge sheet in the case against Kejriwal and others.

The CBI earlier filed one main charge sheet and four supplementaries in the case in which former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Telangana MLC K Kavitha and others have also been charged.

The agency said the one filed on Monday was its final charge sheet in the case.

TDP MP and liquor businessman Magunta Sreenivasalu Reddy met Kejriwal on March 16, 2021 in his office at the Delhi Secretariat and requested him to provide support in his liquor business in the national capital by tweaking the Excise Policy 2021-22 which was then in the making, the agency said in its charge sheet against Kavitha.

Kejriwal assured support to Reddy and asked him to contact Kavitha as she was working with his team on the Excise Policy of Delhi, the CBI alleged.

Kejriwal in turn allegedly told Reddy to provide funds to his political party, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), it had alleged.

The CBI also alleged that kickbacks of around Rs 90-100 crore were paid in advance to some politicians of the ruling AAP in Delhi and other public servants by some persons in the liquor business from south India through co-accused Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally and Dinesh Arora to tweak the Excise Policy for 2021-22.

The agency alleged that these kickbacks are found to have been returned to them subsequently out of the profit margins of wholesalers holding L-1 licences through different modes, like issuance of excess credit notes, bank transfers and outstanding amounts left in accounts of the companies controlled by some conspirators from the South lobby.

The CBI had alleged a cartel was formed between three stakeholders of the said policy -- liquor manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers -- by violating provisions and against the spirit of the policy.

All the conspirators allegedly played active roles in achieving the illegal objectives of the said criminal conspiracy. It resulted in huge losses to the exchequer and undue pecuniary benefits to the public servants and other accused involved in the conspiracy, the CBI had alleged.