Excise Policy Case: Delhi HC Issues Notice To Kejriwal, Sisodia On ED Plea Against Trial Court Remarks
The court issues notice to Kejriwal, Sisodia and others on the ED's plea, challenging the trial court's remarks while acquitting the accused.
Published : March 10, 2026 at 2:14 PM IST
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has issued notices to former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and 21 other accused while hearing a petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The petition challenges the trial court's remarks against the investigating agency while acquitting 23 accused in the Delhi excise policy scam case. A bench of Justice Swarnakanta Sharma observed that the comments made against the investigating agency appeared to be general in nature.
Earlier, on March 9, the High Court had stayed the adverse observations made by the trial court against the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the same matter.
The High Court also directed the trial court not to proceed further with the hearing of the money laundering case linked to the Delhi excise policy scam. Following this order, the ED also filed a petition before the Delhi High Court.
During the hearing on March 9, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, argued that this was the biggest scam in Delhi’s history. He said the trial court’s order was legally incorrect and sought a stay on it.
On February 27, the Rouse Avenue Court had ordered the acquittal of all the accused. The court observed several contradictions in the chargesheet. It stated that the facts presented in the thousands of pages of the chargesheet did not match the statements of witnesses.
The Rouse Avenue Court noted that Manish Sisodia had spent about 530 days in jail, and Arvind Kejriwal had spent 156 days in two separate periods. Kejriwal was released on September 13, 2024, after the Supreme Court granted him bail in the CBI case. This release followed his previous periods of incarceration, as noted in court observations.
Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21, 2024, after questioning. The Supreme Court granted him interim bail on May 10, which lasted until June 1. He surrendered on June 2, 2024. Later, Kejriwal was arrested by the CBI on June 26, 2024.
The ED had filed its sixth supplementary chargesheet on May 10, 2024, naming former Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha, Chanpreet Singh, Damodar Sharma, Prince Kumar and Arvind Singh as accused. The court took cognisance of the sixth supplementary chargesheet on May 29.
On August 27, the Supreme Court granted bail to K Kavitha in both the CBI and ED cases. The court also granted Arvind Kejriwal interim bail in the ED case on July 12, 2024, and regular bail in the CBI case on September 13, 2024.
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