New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday hailed the acquittal of former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in the 2022 excise policy case, calling the verdict a triumph of truth and an exposure of what it described as a politically motivated case.

In a statement on X, the party said, "Truth is immortal, truth is indelible. Today, the court has given a clean chit to Shri Arvind Kejriwal and Shri Manish Sisodia in the fake liquor scam, thereby putting a permanent lock on the BJP's lies forever. Heartfelt thanks to the crores of fellow countrymen who stood by us in this fight. We have fought with complete honesty for the country and will continue to fight."

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The reaction came shortly after a special court at Rouse Avenue discharged Kejriwal, Sisodia and other accused in the case investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Kejriwal, who broke down in tears after the verdict, said, “I am not corrupt. The court has said that Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia are honest.” Calling the judgment a victory of truth, he alleged that the BJP had orchestrated “the biggest political conspiracy” to defame AAP leaders.

“Truth wins,” he said, adding that the party had faith in the judiciary. “The BJP was accusing us. Today, the court dismissed all charges and discharged all the accused. We have faith in the Indian judicial system, and I thank the judge very much for doing justice to us…”

The CBI filed its first chargesheet in 2022, followed by multiple supplementary chargesheets. The agency has alleged that Rs 100 crore was paid by a "south lobby" to influence the now-scrapped excise policy in its favour.

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In total, 23 accused have been chargesheeted, 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, and P Sarath Chadra Reddy.

During arguments, the CBI maintained that the offence of criminal conspiracy must be viewed in its entirety and that the sufficiency of evidence should be tested during trial. Represented by Additional Solicitor General D P Singh and advocate Manu Mishra, the agency argued that there is adequate material to frame charges against all the accused.

On the other hand, senior advocate N Hariharan, appeared for Kejriwal, contended that there is no incriminating material linking his client to the alleged conspiracy. He argued that the fourth supplementary chargesheet naming Kejriwal merely repackages earlier allegations and that Kejriwal was performing his official duties as Chief Minister.

Hariharan further submitted that Kejriwal was not named in the initial chargesheet or in three earlier supplementary chargesheets. His name appeared only in the fourth. The defence also questioned the basis of further investigation and the evidentiary value of statements, including that of approver Raghav Magunta.