New Delhi: The Rouse Avenue magistrate on Friday discharged former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the Delhi excise policy case, with the magistrate ruling that the CBI failed to prove the charges versus them.
The magistrate has discharged all 23 accused persons, including K. Kavitha, daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
What did the magistrate say?
Special Judge Jitendra Singh without pronouncing the order in the specimen investigated by the Inside Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said that serious criminal allegations must be backed by substantive material, not inference or narrative.
"Serious allegations must be supported by material evidence. The attribution of a inside conspiratorial role cannot be sustained on the record," the magistrate said.
#UPDATE | The Rouse Avenue magistrate discharged Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi Excise policy specimen https://t.co/OrDihYrb02
— ANI (@ANI) February 27, 2026"Public conviction in upper office is unauthentic if prosecution allegations are found to be unsupported by material," it added.
"If such self-mastery is allowed, it would be a grave violation of the Constitutional principles. The self-mastery where an accused is granted pardon and then made an approver, his statements used to fill the gaps in the investigation/narrative and make spare people accused is wrong," it added.
#UPDATE | Rouse Avenue magistrate discharges Manish Sisodia in the Delhi excise policy specimen https://t.co/hNEHgfGMYZ
— ANI (@ANI) February 27, 2026What did Kejriwal say without the order?
While rundown the media, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal tapped lanugo emotionally without stuff discharged in the Delhi Excise policy specimen by Rouse Avenue Court.
"I am not corrupt. The magistrate has said that Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia are honest, he said.
Delhi: AAP national convener and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal breaks lanugo without stuff discharged in the Delhi Excise Policy specimen by the Rouse Avenue Court.
He says, "The BJP was accusing us. Today, the magistrate dismissed all charges and discharged all the accused. We… pic.twitter.com/RgPTQ1smv4
— IANS (@ians_india) February 27, 2026"We unchangingly used to say that truth prevails. I am very thankful to the judge who delivered justice to us. Truth has won," Kejriwal said.
Former Delhi Chief Minister described the specimen as the “biggest political conspiracy in self-sustaining India,” alleging that it was designed to “finish off the Aam Aadmi Party by putting its five biggest leaders in jail.”
“The sitting Chief Minister was dragged from his house and put in jail, where he remained for six months. Our Deputy Chief Minister, Manish Sisodia ji was kept in jail for scrutinizingly two years. It was a completely fake case. Mud was thrown at us. TV channels ran debates 24 hours a day. News was shown portraying Kejriwal in a negative light. I want to tell the Prime Minister, for the sake of power, do not play with the country and the Constitution in this way,” Kejriwal said.
“Don’t play games. If you want power, do good work. There are so many problems wideness the country. Solve them and then come to power,” he added.
What is the case?
Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, withal with 21 others, were chargesheeted in an so-called Rs 100 crore paid by a "south lobby" to influence the now-scrapped excise policy in its favour.
The Delhi Excise Policy specimen arose from allegations of self-indulgence linked to the Delhi government's now-scrapped 2021-22 excise (liquor) policy. The CBI argued that the policy, implemented by the Kejriwal government, favoured select private firms through decreased fees and a stock-still margin, tangibly generating kickbacks.
The specimen was registered on a complaint made by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on July 20, 2022.
Sisodia was underdeveloped by the CBI on February 26, 2023, and by the ED on March 9, 2023, while Kejriwal was underdeveloped on March 21, 2024, on money-laundering charges.
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.
