Why a court held CBI’s corruption case against Kejriwal was so flimsy it could not even go to trial

On Friday, a Delhi court discharged Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, as well as 21 other politicians, businesspersons and bureaucrats accused by the Central Investigation Bureau in the Delhi excise policy case. The court said that the case was so weak, there was not enough cogent material to go to trial.

The excise policy referred to laws to reform the state’s retail liquor policy put in place in 2021 by Delhi government, run at the time by Aam Aadmi Party.

The Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party government increased the commission for wholesalers from 5% to 12%. This allegedly facilitated the receipt of bribes from wholesalers who had a substantial market share and turnover.

Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal spent around five months in jail in two periods. Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia was in jail for around 17 months before securing bail.

On Friday, the detailed 598-page verdict by special judge Jitendra Singh stated that after an “exhaustive and painstaking examination” of the record over more than two months, the prosecution’s case did not disclose even the “threshold of a prima facie suspicion,” let alone the required “grave suspicion” to proceed further.

The excise policy case, as sought to be projected by...

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