A day after Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court granted regular bail to two accused Rajesh Joshi and Gautam Malhotra in a money laundering case connected with the Delhi Excise policy case, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said the entire liquor scam is bogus.

AAP National Convenor and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal wrote on Twitter that “Now even the Court has said that there is no material evidence of any kickback or money laundering. We have been saying right from the beginning that the entire liquor scam is bogus and meant only to malign AAP.”

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Addressing a press conference, Delhi Education Minister Atishi highlighted that the court had granted bail to two key accused in the Delhi Excise Case, Rajesh Joshi and Gautam Malhotra, and reprimanded ED for making allegations without any corroborative evidence.

She further stated that both Rajesh and Gautam were central figures in ED-CBI’s allegations of kickbacks worth Rs 100 crore being spent in Goa elections but they were granted bail on account of no evidence. Further, the court’s order has clearly highlighted that not even one rupee has been embezzled in the Excise Case.

Atishi has now called upon the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to come forward and apologise for defaming AAP and misleading the nation.

Atishi said for the last one year, senior leaders and spokespersons of the BJP have conducted multiple press conferences to claim that an alleged Excise Policy scam took place in Delhi.

The same allegations that were made by the BJP leaders and spokespersons on TV for several months later found their way into the chargesheets filed by the CBI and the ED.

She added that it has now been over six months since the CBI and the ED started their investigation in this case and added that over 500 officers were involved in the investigation into this alleged scam.

“Let us analyse what this so-called “scam” really is. So, there are two key arguments in this case. The first states that in the process of forming the new excise policy, Rs 100 crore were taken as kickbacks from several liquor traders. This is the primary allegation that first the leaders of the BJP alleged, and later this argument was also made by the CBI and the ED. The second argument is that this kickback taken was used by the Aam Aadmi Party in the run-up to the state elections in Goa,” she said.

She added that these allegations have been made by multiple leaders of the BJP hundreds of times in the last couple of months via TV debates and press conferences. But yesterday the Rouse Avenue Court gave an order that runs into 85 pages and it also provided bail to two accused in the case – Rajesh Joshi and Gautam Malhotra.

“I want the leaders of the BJP to read the order given by the court. I also want all the TV channels that created a lot of noise regarding this case to read this order as well. This order of the court makes it crystal clear that forget the Rs 100 crore that ED has been alleging in this so-called scam, the agency does not have any evidence to highlight a scam of even one single paisa. In this 85-page order the judge is seen repeating on key points that the investigative agencies have not provided any evidence to back their claim regarding a scam,” she said.