No Money Trail Found By CBI In Liquor Policy Case, Allegations In ‘Realm Of Likelihood’: Manish Sisodia To Delhi High Court

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that no evidence of money trail has been found from him by Central Bureau of Investigation in the alleged liquor policy scam case and that the allegations against him are “in the realm of likelihood.”

The submissions were made by Senior Advocates Dayan Krishnan and Mohit Mathur before the bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma in Sisodia’s plea seeking bail in the case alleging corruption in implementation of excise policy for the year 2021-22.

Sisodia is currently in judicial custody in the cases registered by the CBI and ED. He was denied bail by the special judge in CBI case on March 31. The trial court will pronounce order in his bail plea in the money laundering case on April 26.

Mathur submitted that the entire argument by the probe agency has been that there is a likelihood, because of Sisodia’s position, to influence the witnesses. Contending that nothing concrete has been found by the CBI till date, he said:

“The date aspect may be noted. The FIR was registered in August 2022. They make me as the chief architect of conspiracy. Vijay Nair is arrested in September last year, he was later released on bail in November, before the chargesheet was even filed... All these allegations about my being capable of influencing anyone etc is not there at all. All the allegations regarding money likely to be coming towards me, all that is in the realm of likelihood. There is nothing concrete. Nothing is on papers. No money trail has been found.”

Krishnan submitted that the police or the CBI cannot arrest saying that "I asked you the question, want you to incriminate yourself and you refused to do so. It is against the constitutional guarantee".

Krishnan added: “What is the prima facie evidence to tell that there was tampering [of evidence]? According to you [CBI], the file was missing. Means what? We are talking about government file, these files are moved from bottom, they are ...”

On the allegation that the policy was made to provide a profit margin to the South group by increasing it from 5 percent to 12 percent, Krishnan contended that it was a “fundamental fallacy” in the matter.

“The case is that the profit margin went up from 5 percent to 12 percent. This is the fundamental fallacy in the case. The point is, initially in the draft form, the policy said 5 percent minimum wholesale margin, no cap….The allegation is, in order to favour South group, the profit margin in earlier policies was ramped up to 12 percent,” he said.

He added: “The case is that I made a policy, I am required to make the policy. LG made changes. He sends it back to me. The policy is vetted by finance secretary, law secretary… it is cleared by the cabinet and sent to LG. This is the policy which is subject matter of this case. It is fundamentally documentary. Why should I be in custody for this?… Why should I be singled out for a case like this? This is a case of singled out.”

Another ground on which Krishnan sought bail is the health condition of Sisodia’s wife who is suffering from multiple sclerosis.

“The situation will only get worse. There is beyond a doubt that the trial in this case is not getting over soon. Even the chargesheet is not filed yet,” Krishnan submitted.

The matter has now been fixed for hearing on Wednesday next week. ASG SV Raju will commence submissions on behalf of CBI.

While denying him bail in the CBI case, the trial court had observed that Sisodia can prima facie be held to be architect of the criminal conspiracy. It was also 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 court had also said that it was not inclined to release Sisodia on bail as his release may adversely affect the ongoing investigation and will also seriously hamper the progress.

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.

Title: Manish Sisodia v. CBI