Delhi excise case: Court expedites documents scrutiny as CBI pushes for early trial against Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia

New Delhi: A special CBI court has asked all the accused involved in the Delhi excise case to conclude inspection of documents not relied upon by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) "within a reasonable time" so that the trial in the high-profile political case, involving AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia, can begin. "Defence counsels are requested to ensure that inspection of unrelied upon documents is completed within a reasonable time so that the matter can be proceeded further," a special CBI Judge ordered on February 3.

The order was passed after the agency insisted that the trial should be commenced at the earliest against former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and other 21 accused in the case.The counsel for the CBI further argued that the agency can argue on framing of charges against the accused even while the inspection of unrelied documents by the accused is ongoing. The agency has made it clear to the court that it wants to commence the trial at the earliest. After hearing the arguments on framing of charges by the CBI, as per procedure, the court will give an opportunity to the defence counsel to counter-argue, following which the court would take a call on whether to frame charges against the accused, thereby kickstarting the trial. Of the total 23 accused currently, inspection of documents not relied upon by the CBI are being carried out by two accused, namely Abhishek Boinpally and Amandeep Singh Dhall. The CBI also filed an application for placing on record a supplementary list of documents not relied upon by it. The agency in its application submitted that "during scrutiny of documents certain digital devices were found to have inadvertently not been included in the unrelied upon documents. However, said records are available for inspection of accused persons...in the interest of full and true disclosure the application is being filed to take on record the said devices mentioned in annexure as part of unrelied documents". The CBI counsel further informed the court that the complete list of unrelied upon documents has already been filed by it and the documents are available for inspection.

The CBI had, in August last year, informed a local court that it had obtained the sanction to prosecute Kejriwal in the Delhi excise case. In July last year, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against Kejriwal. Both Kejriwal and Sisodia have denied the charges. The CBI had registered an FIR on August 19, 2022, on charges of corruption, criminal conspiracy, falsification of accounts, and undue advantage in connection with the city's liquor policy. Initially, Sisodia and 15 others were named in the FIR. Kejriwal was made an accused later after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which is investigating Kejriwal and co-accused in the Delhi excise case on charges of money laundering.


The CBI in its FIR had alleged that Sisodia and 15 others were "instrumental" in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to the excise policy for the year 2021-22 "without approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to licensees post tender".