New Delhi: CBI on Monday claimed that the liquor policy case is “one of the biggest scams in the history of the national capital” as it urged Delhi High Court to set aside the discharge of all 23 accused, including former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.Appearing for the agency, solicitor general Tushar Mehta dubbed the case a “national shame”, contending that the trial court had ignored CBI’s “meticulous” and “scientific investigation” in the matter. The senior law officer blamed the special court for giving the benefit of an “acquittal without trial” to the accused in the case, saying it had “turned the criminal law on its head”. Mehta requested HC to decide on CBI’s plea by fixing a time schedule for hearing. He claimed that meticulous evidence had been collected by the agency to show that a conspiracy was hatched and bribes taken for a manipulated liquor policy, yet there were portions in the trial court’s discharge order that were “factually incorrect”.Echoing CBI’s written submissions, the SG highlighted that the special court discarded key evidence, such as statements of approvers and witnesses recorded before a magistrate under section 164 CrPC.The agency said that the veracity of the testimony of witnesses and approvers could only be established during trial, but the court declared them unreliable or uncorroborated at the stage of framing of charge. It also contended that the special court departed from the settled legal principle that prosecution material must be taken as true at the stage of framing of charge.“The discharge order repeatedly speaks of lack of ‘independent corroboration’ for approver statements, failing to consider that corroboration is not the requirement for framing charges and that the requirement of corroboration for approver evidence applies at the stage of conviction, not at the stage of framing charges,” the written submissions contend.CBI cited the alleged role of AAP’s communication in charge, Vijay Nair, alleging that he had coordinated the accepting of bribes ranging from Rs 19 crore to Rs 100 crore in exchange for favours under the now-scrapped excise policy.Special judge Jitendra Singh last month cleared all the accused from the case lodged by CBI on Aug 17, 2022, concluding that the prosecution failed to cross the minimum threshold mandated by law at the stage of framing of charge. The court found that the material placed on record does not disclose even a prima facie case, much less any grave suspicion, against any of the accused persons.
