Liquor Policy: Delhi Court Reserves Order On Manish Sisodia's Bail Pleas In CBI, ED Cases

A Delhi Court on Saturday reserved an order on the second regular bail plea filed by Former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia in the money laundering and corruption cases connected to the liquor policy case.

Sisodia is presently in judicial custody in both cases.

Special judge Kaveri Baweja of Rouse Avenue Courts reserved the verdict after hearing Advocate Vivek Jain for Sisodia; Zoheb Hossain, special counsel for Enforcement Directorate (ED) and prosecutor Pankaj Gupta for Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The order will be pronounced on April 30.

Sisodia was denied bail by the trial court, Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court in both ED and CBI cases.

The AAP leader also moved interim bail pleas in both cases to campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. However, Jain told the court today that the plea has become infructuous as the regular bail plea is being reserved.

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.

“Investigation is at a nascent stage on certain key aspects,” he told the court.

Furthermore, Gupta contended that the entire community is aggrieved in economic offences and that former Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, once said that corruption is cancer for society.

“He may influence further investigation and witnesses. Is stage pe agar bail diya gaya toh definitely Inka motive solve hoga (if he gets bail at this stage, it will solve his motive)” he said.

Gupta added: “Earlier also bail was dismissed. Inko High Court and Supreme Court tak relief nahi mila hain. Investigation me influence karenge kyuki is hi court ne maana hain ki ye mastermind hain (Even the HC or SC did not give him relief...he will definitely influence the investigation because this court itself has called him the mastermind)."

As Jain requested the court to decide the applications either way expeditiously as the same has been pending since February, the court said that the order will be pronounced on April 30.

The Supreme Court had also dismissed Sisodia's review petitions against the denial of bail. His curative petitions have also been dismissed.

Background

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.