New Delhi: A city court on Friday (January 24) exempted former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Manish Sisidia and Durgesh Pathan from their personal appearance in an excise policy case as they were busy campaigning for the upcoming assembly polls.
Special judge Kaveri Baweja allowed them exemption from personally appearing before the court after they informed the three AAP leaders informed the court they were unable to personally appear before the court as they were “actively engaged” in campaigning for the upcoming Delhi assembly elections.
Court adjourned hearing on case to February 3
The court granted the AAP leaders reprieve and adjourned the case to February 3.
“In view of the above said submissions, personal appearance of the applicants are exempted for today only through counsel… The case is adjourned to February 3, 2025,” the special judge said, news agency PTI reported.
Kejriwal, Sisodia were granted bail by the apex court
Kejriwal and Sisodia were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) in corruption and money laundering cases in connection with alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-defunct Delhi Excise Policy and they came out after the Supreme Court granted them bail in both the cases.
The Delhi Excise Policy was implemented by the Delhi government on November 17, 2021, and it was scrapped by the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption.
What are the allegations?
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a First Information Report (FIR) on August 17, 2022 in which it alleged that the now-defunct Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 was modified to extend undue favours to license holders in exchange of kickbacks resulting in huge losses to the exchequer. The ED, taking cognisance of the CBI FIR, filed its money laundering case on August 22, 2022 to probe the alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the alleged “scam”.
The AAP has denied allegations of corruption against the party and its leaders.
