New Delhi

Following his discharge by the Rouse Avenue Court in the Delhi Excise Policy case, former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was warmly welcomed by his family upon his arrival at his residence.

He was embraced by his family members, with Manish Sisodia accompanying him.

Prior to this, the Rouse Avenue Court on Friday discharged Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the Delhi Excise Policy case.

The court observed that the alleged central conspiratorial role could not be substantiated.

The court noted that the allegations "failed judicial scrutiny" and found "no criminal intent" on the part of Manish Sisodia. It further stated that the conspiracy theory "cannot survive against one constitutional authority."

The CBI filed its first chargesheet in 2022, followed by multiple supplementary chargesheets. The agency has alleged that Rs 100 crore was paid by a "south lobby" to influence the now-scrapped excise policy in its favour.

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In total, 23 accused have been chargesheeted, including Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, K Kavitha, Kuldeep Singh, Narender Singh, Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Ramchandra Pillai, Mootha Goutam, Sameer Mahendru, Amandeep Singh Dhall, Arjun Pandey, Butchibabu Gornatla, Rakesh Joshi, Damodar Prasad Sharma, Prince Kumar, Chanpreet Singh Rayat, Arvind Kumar Singh, Durgesh Pathak, Amit Arora, Vinod Chauhan, Ashish Mathur, and P Sarath Chadra Reddy.

During arguments, the CBI maintained that the offence of criminal conspiracy must be viewed in its entirety and that the sufficiency of evidence should be tested during trial. Represented by Additional Solicitor General D P Singh and advocate Manu Mishra, the agency argued that there is adequate material to frame charges against all the accused.