Excise policy case: AAP counters CBI charge sheet implicating Delhi CM Kejriwal, says 'they have failed to...'

The AAP on Monday said the central probe agencies have failed to find any evidence in the excise policy case and asserted that it is a "staunchly honest" party.

The reaction from the ruling party in Delhi came hours after the CBI filed its final charge sheet in the trial court against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five others, including AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak, in the case.

The BJP and its agencies have been investigating this case for two years, filing over 50,000-page charge sheets and interrogating more than 500 witnesses, while conducting raids at multiple locations, the AAP said in a statement.

"Yet they have failed to find any evidence against the AAP and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal because we're staunchly honest people," it claimed.

Kejriwal has been granted bail three times by the trial court, and the Supreme Court in the excise policy case, said the party.

"Every day, the BJP and its ED-CBI are filing fresh charge sheet and creating new angles to keep CM Arvind Kejriwal in jail. This is yet another instance of the BJP's witch hunt to implicate as many AAP leaders as possible," the party charged.

The BJP has no regard for the people of Delhi and their mandate, that's why they are keeping three-time CM Arvind Kejriwal incarcerated in a "fake" case, whose blood sugar levels are "dangerously dipping below 50" frequently, it alleged further.

Kejriwal was arrested by the CBI on June 26 from Tihar Jail while he was lodged in judicial custody in a connected money laundering case filed by the ED.

The court's verdict on his petition challenging the arrest by CBI is awaited.

The CM, who was arrested by the ED on March 21, was granted bail by the trial court in the money laundering case on June 20. However, the trial court's order was stayed by the high court.

On July 12, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the money laundering case.

The excise policy was scrapped in 2022 after the Delhi lieutenant governor ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities and corruption involving the formulation and execution of the policy.

According to the CBI and the ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours extended to licence holders.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI)

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