New Delhi: Hours after a trial court discharged Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and others in the liquor policy case on Friday, CBI moved Delhi High Court challenging the order.CBI has contended that several aspects of the investigation into the corruption charges against them were either ignored or not considered adequately by the trial court. An agency spokesperson said, “CBI has decided to appeal against the judgement of the trial court immediately in the high court.” The court may hear the petition on Saturday.Following the verdict, CBI initially contemplated either filing a revision petition or challenging the order under Section 528 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, previously Section 482 of erstwhile CrPC, granting the high court inherent powers to prevent abuse of the court process, sources said. “Other available recourse was a special leave petition in Supreme Court, given it had last year ruled that the high court can stay a discharge order only in rare cases where the order looked ‘perverse’,” they added. CBI, sources said, may also seek to expunge the remarks made in the order, including the departmental action recommended against the investigating officer. The federal agency has identified multiple points of contention, claiming that the special court had failed to consider specific merits of the case at the charge-framing stage. It is likely to cite past court rulings and observations in the case, besides the report of Comptroller and Auditor General on the alleged irregularities in the policy rollout, and request to stay the discharge order. According to sources, the agency is likely to particularly cite the observations made by the court while rejecting the bail petitions of the accused and the fact that the court had taken due cognisance of CBI’s chargesheet, implying a judicial agreement to the prima facie commission of a crime going by the evidence presented by the agency.In Aug 2022, CBI had filed an FIR against the then deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and others, including senior excise officials and 10 liquor licensees and their associates, on a reference from the Union home ministry over alleged irregularities in framing and implementation of the now-expunged excise policy. It had subsequently filed a chargesheet and supplementary reports.
