The Enforcement Directorate on Monday moved the Delhi High Court against the acquittal of Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal in two cases filed against him for not complying with the summonses issued to him in the liquor policy case, PTI reported.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma will hear the matter on Wednesday.

On January 22, a trial court acquitted the former Delhi chief minister in the two cases filed against him for not appearing before the central agency. It held that the Enforcement Directorate had failed to prove that Kejriwal intentionally disobeyed the summonses.

Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in March 2024. Till then, he had been summoned nine times by the law enforcement agency in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi government’s now-scrapped liquor excise policy.

The chief minister had skipped all nine summonses.

In July 2024, the Supreme Court granted him interim bail in the case. However, he remained in jail as he had been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the same case in June 2024. He was eventually released from jail in September 2024 after the Supreme Court granted him bail in the second matter.

In February, the Enforcement Directorate told the High Court that it will challenge the former chief minister’s acquittal in the cases about him not appearing before the agency after its summonses.

The liquor policy case

The Central Bureau of Investigation had alleged irregularities in the Delhi government’s liquor excise policy, which has since been scrapped. Based on the Central Bureau of Investigation case, the Enforcement Directorate also launched an investigation into allegations of money-laundering.

The policy came into effect in November 2021. It was withdrawn in July 2022 with Vinai Kumar Saxena, the Delhi lieutenant governor at the time, recommending an investigation into the alleged irregularities of the policy.

The two central agencies alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party government at the time modified the liquor policy by increasing the commission for wholesalers from 5% to 12%. This allegedly facilitated the receipt of bribes from wholesalers who had a substantial market share and turnover.

The party had denied the allegations.

On February 27, a Delhi court discharged Kejriwal and 22 others accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the liquor policy case. There was no overarching conspiracy or criminal intent in the excise policy, the Rouse Avenue Courts had ruled.

Among the other persons discharged in the case was former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manisha Sisodia and Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha.

The court criticised the central agency for implicating Kejriwal without any cogent material. It said that the chargesheet had several gaps not supported by any witnesses or statements.

The bench said that it will recommend a departmental inquiry against the Central Bureau of Investigation officials who made a public servant the accused number one in the case.

However, the High Court on March 9 stayed the adverse observations made by the trial court about the Central Bureau of Investigation.

A petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against the discharge is pending in the High Court.