Delhi Court gives clean chit to Kejriwal, Sisodia; raps CBI
In a major setback to investigations, a Delhi Court Friday February 27, 2026 acquitted Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in Delhi liquor excise duty case.
[Arvind Kejriwal celebrates, along with other party leaders, outside his residence in Delhi after Rouse Avenue court gave him clean chit.]
New Delhi: In a major setback to investigations, a Delhi Court Friday February 27, 2026 acquitted Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in Delhi liquor excise duty case.
The court in a verdict pronounced in a packed room also slammed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's prime investigating agency.
Special Judge Jitendra Singh of Rouse Avenue Court in a 598-page order discharged former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and 21 other accused in the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the Delhi excise policy 2021-22.
The judge also pulled up the CBI for elevating and treating the statements of the approver as unimpeachable truth.
“The statements of the approver have been elevated and treated as though they constitute unimpeachable truth, and have been uncritically incorporated as relied-upon material forming the backbone of the prosecution case,” Justice Singh said.
The court in its order further said allowing such a practice to go unscrutinised would risk setting an unhealthy precedent.
“If such a practice is permitted to pass without judicial scrutiny, it carries the grave potential of setting an unhealthy precedent, effectively normalising a method whereby an investigating agency, after securing pardon on the professed premise of a “full and true disclosure”, continues to repeatedly re-record statements of the approver over an extended period, ostensibly to fill gaps, improve the prosecution narrative, implicate additional accused, or artificially weave missing links in the chain of circumstances,” the Delhi Court said in its order.
Kejriwal breaks down
A large number of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporters were present outside the court when Justice Singh pronounced the order.
While addressing the party workers and later meeting with his wife and other family members, Arvind Kejriwal broke down and spoke about his honesty in a choked voice.
Kejriwal and Sisodia both were jailed after the cases were filed against them. Owing to the pressure because of the charges against him, Kejriwal had also stepped down as Delhi CM.
Delhi CM Rekha Gupta, however, said there were enough evidence in the case. She also said that evidences were tampered with. The BJP had made corruption a major poll issue to counter Kejrwal and his Aam Aadmi Party in the last Delhi elections.
The CBI, meanwhile, said it will challenge and file an appeal against the order in the higher courts.
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