Manish Sisodia 'Architect Of Criminal Conspiracy' In Liquor Policy Scam, Advance Kickback Of Over Rs 90 Crore Was Meant For Him, His Colleagues: Delhi Court

Denying bail to former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the CBI case alleging corruption in implementation of excise policy for the year 2021-22, a Delhi Court on Friday said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader can prima facie be held to be architect of the criminal conspiracy.

Sisodia is currently under judicial custody in the cases registered by the CBI and ED.

Special Judge MK Nagpal of Rouse Avenue Courts observed that the payment of advance kickbacks of around Rs. 90-100 crores was meant for him and his other colleagues in the Delhi government.

“The payment of advance kickbacks of around Rs. 90-100 crores was meant for him and his other colleagues in the GNCTD and Rs. 20-30 crores out of the above are found to have been routed through the co-accused Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally and approver Dinesh Arora and in turn, certain provisions of the excise policy were permitted to be tweaked and manipulated by the applicant to protect and preserve the interests of South liquor lobby and to ensure repayment of the kickbacks to the said lobby,” the court observed.

In the order running into 34 pages, the court said that it is not inclined to release Sisodia on bail at this stage of investigation as his release may adversely affect the ongoing investigation and will also seriously hamper the progress.

“The evidence collected so far clearly shows that the applicant through the co-accused Vijay Nair was in contact with the South lobby and formulation of a favourable policy for them was being ensured at every cost and a cartel was permitted to be formed to achieve monopoly in sale of certain liquor brands of favoured manufacturers and it was permitted to be done against very objectives of the policy. Thus, as per allegations made by prosecution and the evidence collected in support thereof so far, the applicant can prima facie be held to be architect of the said criminal conspiracy,” court said.

The judge further said that the allegations made against Sisodia are serious in nature and he does not deserve to be released on bail as he was arrested in the CBI case only on February 26 and that the investigation qua his role has still not been completed.

“….what to say about some other co-accused involved in the case whose roles are also yet being investigated,” the court said.

It also observed that mere filing of a chargesheet against seven other co-accused in the matter “does not matter much in a case like this where deep rooted conspiracy for commission of some economic offences effecting the people at large is alleged to have been committed.”

On the grounds of parity for granting bail to other accused, the court said that prima facie, the role played by Sisodia cannot be equated with or put at par with the roles of other three accused persons who have been granted bail.

The court further said that the evidence collected so far by CBI not only shows Sisodia’s active participation in the criminal conspiracy, but also the prima facie commission of some substantive offences of the PC Act by him.

“There is also nothing apparent on record to infer or show that arrest of the applicant in this case was illegal or violative of any directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court or the Hon'ble High Courts and rather, the material placed before this court by the CBI justifies the arrest of applicant in the case,” the court said.

The AAP leader was arrested by the CBI on February 26 after an interrogation of more than 8 hours. He was named as an accused in the FIR. It is the case of the probe agency that there were alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy for the year 2021-22.

The CBI alleged that Sisodia was arrested as he gave evasive replies and did not cooperate with the investigation despite being confronted with evidence.

The CBI FIR states that Sisodia and others were instrumental in “recommending and taking decisions” regarding the excise policy 2021-22 “without approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licensee post tender.”

On the other hand, ED has alleged that the excise policy was implemented as part of a conspiracy to give wholesale business profit of 12% to certain private companies. It has said that such a stipulation was not mentioned in the minutes of meetings of Group of Ministers (GoM).

The agency has also claimed that there was a conspiracy which was coordinated by Vijay Nair and other individuals along with South Group to give extraordinary profit margin to wholesalers. Nair was acting on behalf of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, according to the agency.