Observations Made by Trial Court While Acquitting Kejriwal, Others 'Prima Facie Erroneous', Says Delhi HC

New Delhi: The Delhi high court has said that the observations made by a trial court while discharging former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and 22 others in the Delhi liquor policy matter were “prima facie erroneous”.

While issuing notice in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s appeal, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma also stayed till March 16 the trial court’s February 27 order directing departmental action against CBI’s investigating officer along with the observations against him, reported Hindustan Times.

Justice Sharma noted that the remarks were “prima facie foundationally misconceived especially when made at the stage of charge itself.”

He also requested the trial court to defer the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case about alleged money laundering that had stemmed from the CBI case, and instead await the outcome of CBI’s appeal against the February 27 verdict.

“In the meantime, the learned trial court, where the proceedings regarding the connected case filed by the Directorate of Enforcement are pending, is requested to adjourn the case to a date, later than the date fixed before this court, and await the outcome of the present case,” the court said, reported Hindustan Times.

Earlier, CBI’s lawyer, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, had requested the trial court to stay the “adverse observations” made against the CBI’s IO and pass an order to an effect that the February 27 verdict should not impact the money laundering case that had stemmed from the CBI case.

Mehta argued that the 601-page order effectively turned the fundamentals of criminal law on its head and amounted to “an acquittal without trial.”

“This court is of the opinion that certain factual discrepancies pointed out in the impugned order, the observations made by the trial court regarding the statement of witnesses and the approvers at the stage of charge itself, prima facie appears erroneous and need consideration when viewed in the background of well settled law on charge and conspiracy as to whether such observations could have been made at the stage of charge itself. In these circumstances, issue notice to all 23 respondents, by all permissible modes, including electronically, as also through the concerned Investigating Officer, returnable on the next date of hearing,” said the Delhi high court said in its order.

In its February 27 order, the trial court had said that the material put on record by the CBI “does not disclose even a prima facie case, much less any grave suspicion”. The Rouse Avenue court declared that the “excise policy case … is wholly unable to survive judicial scrutiny and stands discredited in its entirety”.

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