The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) went in appeal to the Delhi High Court just hours after the Rouse Avenue Special Court on Friday cleared former CM Arvind Kejriwal among 23 accused in a case of alleged corruption in the excise or liquor-contract policy during his tenure. The HC would set a date for the appeal hearing, but for Kejriwal the day unfolded like a dream.
He was in tears soon after the discharge order came. “I am not corrupt. Main kattar imaandaar hun (I am absolutely honest),” he said through tears. He then reached his residence where the family welcomed him with hugs.
Also discharged, Manish Sisodia, a former deputy CM who is considered Kejriwal’s main man since their days of activism, was with him.
From his home to the party office some distance away, Kejriwal was in a car as part of a procession. He emerged from the sunroof, and waved through a shower of flower petals; someone handed him a ‘gada’ (mace), and there were brass bands playing — the spectacle showing how big a win it was for AAP and Kejriwal.
At a press conference, Kejriwal launched an attack directly at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, saying the case showed how the CBI and other central agencies such as the ED were being weaponised by the BJP regime against Opposition leaders.
He also referred to the BJP’s having come to power in the Delhi assembly elections last year, after the case was filed “to taint our reputation”.
“I challenge PM Modi to fresh polls in Delhi; and if BJP wins over 10 seats, I will quit politics,” he said.
The latest Delhi assembly elections, which the BJP won by defeating the AAP that was in power for over 10 years, were held in February of 2025. The BJP won 48 of the 70 seats, returning to power in the national capital territory after 27 years.
The AAP collapsed from 62 seats in 2020 to just 22, and Arvind Kejriwal lost his own New Delhi constituency seat — a deeply symbolic blow for a man who had built his entire political identity around clean governance.
“The people of Delhi have already punished Kejriwal,” BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said. Referring to the CBI’s next move, he said, “The judicial process will take its course as we are filing an appeal.”
But Kejriwal found support for his hold-fresh-elections demand from another prominent Opposition leader, Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD in Bihar.
“False lawsuits are being filed against opposition leaders. Arvind Kejriwal has suffered a lot due to this (case). We demand that elections be held again in Delhi,” Yadav told reporters in Patna.
Delhi elections 2025: Shadow of a ‘scam’
The last Delhi election was fought under the long shadow of the Delhi liquor policy case. Kejriwal had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in March 2024, accused of being part of a conspiracy in which AAP’s 2021-22 excise policy was allegedly designed to favour certain liquor traders in exchange for kickbacks.
He spent around five months in Tihar Jail before the Supreme Court granted him bail in September 2024. Upon release, he resigned as CM. Atishi became the CM, but kept the chair vacant in a symbolic gesture.
Kejriwal framed his quitting as a moral gesture, saying he would only reclaim the chair if Delhi’s voters gave him a fresh mandate. They did not.
His deputy, Manish Sisodia, had been arrested even earlier, in February 2023, in the same case, spending 17 months in jail before getting bail in August 2024.
So, by the time polling day arrived in February 2025, AAP’s most prominent faces were all either in jail, freshly out on bail, or still accused of corruption. The allegations were particularly damaging because fighting corruption had been the stated reason AAP was founded at all in 2012.
Almost exactly a year later, on February 27, 2026, Kejriwal got the discharge order from the Rouse Avenue court.
“Ever since coming to power, the BJP has thrown Delhi into chaos with problems like pollution in the air and the Yamuna; and damaged roads,” he said at his press conference, speaking in Hindi.
The court has given a historic verdict, he said, adding that the judge showed “tremendous courage” in passing the order under “current circumstances when all institutions are under assault”.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, however, said: “The court has acknowledged a lack of evidence, and the investigating agency has repeatedly stated that Kejriwal and Sisodia destroyed evidence.”
Sachdeva said the AAP supremo still did not have answers on key issues that will be taken up by the CBI in its appeal. “I firmly believe that Arvind Kejriwal is corrupt,” he added.
Where the case stands now
Officials in the CBI told news agencies that it has flagged in its appeal against the discharge, points that were “ignored” or not considered at the charge-framing level by the Rouse Avenue court.
In the order, Special Judge Jitendra Singh found no merit in the CBI’s allegation that Kejriwal was a “central figure” who manipulated the later-scrapped policy for the benefit of the so-called “South Group”.
“The prosecution seeks to connect Accused 18 (Kejriwal) mainly based on one sentence in the statement of the witness, namely, prosecution witness 225 Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy: ‘Thereafter, he told me that K Kavitha, daughter of K Chandrashekar Rao, the then chief minister of Telangana, would be contacting me in this regard’,” the judge said.
Taking note of the evidence before it, the court, however, said there was no relevant document, file noting, electronic communication, financial transaction or digital evidence to directly or indirectly connect Kejriwal with any alleged policy manipulation or illegal gratification. “The attempt to implicate him rests on an inference drawn from an uncorroborated accomplice-like statement,” it said.