Kejriwal urges Delhi HC Chief Justice to transfer liquor policy case to a different Bench

New Delhi: AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal has submitted a representation to the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court seeking the transfer of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) revision petition in the Delhi excise policy case from the Bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.

In his representation, former Delhi CM Kejriwal requested Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya – who is the master of the roster -that the case be reassigned to a different Bench of the Delhi High Court.

The CBI’s revision plea assail the order of the Rouse Avenue Court discharging all 23 accused, including Kejriwal and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in the case relating to the now-scrapped excise policy introduced by the then AAP-led Delhi government.

Earlier this week, a single-judge Bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma had issued notice to Kejriwal, Sisodia and other respondents on the CBI’s petition assailing the trial court’s decision to discharge the accused.

During the hearing, the Delhi High Court also stayed the trial court’s direction ordering departmental action against a CBI officer who had investigated the case and said that the remarks made against the investigating agency and the officer would remain stayed.

The Delhi High Court had indicated that the matter would be taken up for further hearing next week.

Separately, Justice Sharma’s Bench on Tuesday issued notice on a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking expunging of certain adverse observations made against it by the trial court while discharging the accused in the excise policy case.

The ED has contended that the remarks were “extraneous to the subject matter” of the proceedings and were made despite the anti-money laundering agency not being a party before the trial court when the discharge order was passed.

Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju had argued that the observations were recorded without giving the ED an opportunity to present its case and could prejudice its ongoing investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

During the hearing, Justice Sharma said the Delhi High Court would consider the ED’s grievance along with the CBI’s revision petition since the entire judgment of the trial court was already under challenge before it.

The CBI, in its petition before the High Court, has assailed the trial court’s decision to discharge all the accused, arguing that the order was “perverse” and effectively amounted to an acquittal without trial.

According to the probe agency, the excise policy was allegedly manipulated to benefit certain private liquor entities, including the so-called ‘South Group’, in exchange for alleged upfront bribes.

However, the trial court had rejected the prosecution’s theory of an overarching conspiracy and held that the contemporaneous record indicated the policy was the outcome of a consultative and deliberative process carried out in accordance with prescribed procedure.

IANS