Delhi excise policy corruption case: No incriminating evidence to frame charges against Kejriwal, counsel argues

New Delhi [India], February 11 (ANI): The accused persons in the Delhi Excise policy case, including Arvind Kejriwal and others, on Wednesday concluded their arguments on framing of charges before a Rouse Avenue court. The Senior advocate argued that there is no incriminating evidence to frame charges against the former Delhi Chief Minister.
Special Judge Jitendra Singh heard the arguements advanced by senior advocate N Hariharan on behalf of Arvind Kejriwal.
The court has asked the counsel for accsued persons to file their written submissions.
The matter has been listed for rebuttal arguements by the CBI on February 12. ASG DP Singh is representing the CBI.
Senior advocate Hariharan argued that there is no material to frame charges against Arvind Kejriwal.
On January 17, the senior counsel had submitted that there is nothing incriminating against him and that the chargesheet against him is a cut-and-paste job of the previous charge sheet. He was doing his official duty as the Chief Minister.
The senior counsel argued that Kejriwal was doing his official duty. There is no evidence linking him to any request to take money from the south lobby.
Kejriwal was not named in the first chargesheet, nor in 3 supplementary chargesheets. His name came in 4 the supplementary chargesheet.
It was also submitted that the Subject matter of the 4 charge sheets is the same as that of the previous charge sheets. It is a cut-and-paste of allegations against Kejriwal.
During the arguments, the senior counsel had also addressed the issue of Permission for further investigation. The need for further investigation is to be examined.
Further evidence should be such which shows the guilt of the Accused found with permission of the court, senior counsel N Hariharan submitted.
It was added that the 4th charge sheet is nothing but repackaging with the intent to implicate a person who was doing his official duty.
The court asked the senior counsel to elaborate on Magunta's statement, who has turned approver. It is alleged that someone asked Magunta to pay money on behalf of Kejriwal.
It was submitted that Raghav Magunta was designated an approver, having previously been an accused.
Senior advocate had submitted that there is no link which shows that Kejriwal had asked anyone to take money from the south lobby.
It is alleged that Rs 100 crore was paid by the south lobby to influence the proposed Delhi Excise policy in their favour.
In this case there are 23 accused charge sheeted by the CBI, including Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, K Kavitha, Kuldeep Singh, Narender Singh, Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Ramchandra Pillai, Mootha Goutam, Sameer Mahendru, Amandeep Singh Dhall, Arjun Pandey, Butchibabu Gornatla, Rakesh Joshi, Damodar Prasad Sharma, Prince Kumar, Chanpreet Singh Rayat, Arvind Kumar Singh, Durgesh Pathak, Amit Arora, Vinod Chauhan, Ashish Mathur, P Sarath Chadra Reddy. (ANI)