Manish Sisodia, Other Accused Caused Delay In Trial Of ED's Liquor Policy Case, Apparent Attempts To Slow Down Progress: Delhi Court

A Delhi Court yesterday rejected former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's plea that the proceedings in the money laundering case related to the alleged liquor policy scam have been delayed or that the case is proceedings at a snail's pace.

Special judge Kaveri Baweja of Rouse Avenue Courts observed the so­ called delay is clearly on account of reasons attributable to the AAP leader himself.

The court made the observations while denying bail to Sisodia in the money laundering case for the second time.

The Apex Court, while dismissing his bail plea, had last year said that he can file a fresh bail plea before the trial court if the trial proceeds at a snail's pace.

“…it is thus apparent that the Applicant individually, and along with different accused have been filing one or the other application/making oral submissions frequently, some of them frivolous, that too on a piecemeal basis, apparently as a concerted effort for accomplishing the shared purpose of causing delay in the matter,” the court said.

It added that steady progression of the case, despite the “apparent attempt” to slow down its progress, cannot, by any standards, be equated with “snail's pace”.

“…the plea of the Applicant that the proceedings have been delayed or protracted or that the case is proceedings at a snail's pace are rejected. The so­ called delay caused in progression of the case is also clearly on account of reasons attributable to the applicant,” the court observed.

Furthermore, the judge said that Sisodia's wife has been suffering from the ailments since a long time and has been receiving medical treatment and thus, there is no urgent need to release the AAP leader on bail.

“Hence, in the light of the above observations and upon considering the respective pleas of the Applicant and the Prosecution in the light of record of the case, this court is not inclined to admit the Applicant to Bail, either regular or interim, at this stage. The application under consideration is accordingly dismissed,” the court said.

Yesterday, the court dismissed second regular bail pleas filed by Sisodia in the money laundering as well as corruption cases related to the liquor policy.

Advocate Vivek Jain appeared for Sisodia; Zoheb Hossain, special counsel for Enforcement Directorate (ED) and prosecutor Pankaj Gupta for Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Sisodia was denied bail by the trial court, Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court in both ED and CBI cases. The Supreme Court had also dismissed Sisodia's review petitions against the denial of bail. His curative petitions have also been dismissed.

CBI prosecutor, Pankaj Gupta, opposed the bail plea and said that Sisodia does not satisfy the rigours of grant of bail under the PMLA. He said that Sisodia is a powerful person with a “political clout”.

He further contended that Sisodia, who is the main accused in the case, is also not entitled to parity

Gupta said that the allegations against the AAP leader show that a prima facie case is made out regarding the destruction of evidence by him and of misuse of power, which may hamper the investigation.

Manish Sisodia was first arrested by CBI and ED on February 26 and March 9 last year respectively.

In the FIR registered by the CBI, Sisodia and others have been accused of being instrumental in 'recommending' and 'taking decisions' regarding the 2021-22 excise policy, “without the approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licensee post tender”.

The central agency has also claimed that the AAP leader was arrested because he gave evasive replies and refused to cooperate with the investigation, despite being confronted with evidence.

On the other hand, the Enforcement Directorate has alleged that the excise policy was implemented as part of a conspiracy to give wholesale business profit of 12 percent to certain private companies, although 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 that was coordinated by Vijay Nair and other individuals along with South Group to give extraordinary profit margins to wholesalers. Nair was acting on behalf of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, according to the agency.

Sisodia's bail applications in both cases were rejected by Special Judge MK Nagpal (now transferred) on March 31 and April 28 last year. The Delhi High Court then denied bail to Sisodia in both cases after which he approached the Supreme Court challenging both these verdicts.

On October 30 last year, the Supreme Court refused to grant bail to the former Delhi deputy chief minister.