NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a final chargesheet against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and several others in the now scrapped Delhi Excise Policy case as it has concluded its probe. The CBI chargesheet, submitted before the Rouse Avenue Court, alleges that Kejriwal played a crucial role in manipulating the excise policy to benefit a liquor cartel.

The CBI earlier filed one main charge sheet and four supplementaries in the case in which former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Telangana Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and Member of Legislative Council K Kavitha who is the daughter of former Chief Minister of Telangana, K. Chandrasekhar Rao and others have also been charged. The CBI has also named Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Durgesh Pathak who was not named in the initial FIR registered by the CBI and four others in its chargesheet. Pathak has been questioned twice by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

As per the chargesheet, during the making of the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 liquor businessman Magunta Sreenivasalu Reddy who is a member of parliament from the Telugu Desam Party of N Chandrababu Naidu met Kejriwal on March 16, 2021 in his office at the Delhi Secretariat and requested him to provide support in his liquor business in the national capital by tweaking the Excise Policy. 

The CBI alleged in the chargesheet that Kejriwal then assured support to Reddy and asked him to contact the accused K Kavitha as she was working with his team on the Excise Policy of Delhi, but in turn, allegedly told Reddy to provide funds to his political party the AAP as part of the deal. The CBI claimed that kickbacks of approximately Rs 90-100 crore were paid in advance to some politicians of Delhi's ruling AAP and other public officials by individuals in the South Indian liquor business through co-accused Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, and Dinesh Arora to manipulate the Excise Policy for 2021-22.

The agency further alleged that these kickbacks were later returned to the payers out of the profit margins of wholesalers holding L-1 licenses through various methods, such as issuing excess credit notes, bank transfers, and leaving outstanding amounts in company accounts controlled by conspirators from the Southern liquor lobby and that a cartel was formed among three stakeholders of the policy—liquor manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers—by violating provisions and the policy's intended spirit.

According to the CBI, all the conspirators actively participated in achieving the illegal objectives of the criminal conspiracy. This resulted in significant losses to the exchequer and undue financial benefits to the public officials and other accused involved. Kejriwal was arrested by the ED earlier this year on 21st March in a money laundering case linked to the alleged liquor policy scam and although the Supreme Court has granted him interim bail, he remains in jail as the CBI had arrested him in a related matter.