Supreme Court Judge Justice Sanjay Kumar Recuses From Hearing Delhi Liquor Policy Case Accused-Abhishek Boinpally's Bail Plea

Supreme Court Judge Justice Sanjay Kumar recused today from the hearing of the bail plea of Hyderabad businessman Abhishek Boinpally, an accused in the Delhi Liquor Policy case.

The bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar was dealing with Boinpally's special leave petition challenging a Delhi High Court judgment of July 2023 denying him bail. When the matter was called out, Justice Khanna said,

"This will go before another bench...my brother will not be able to...subject to orders of Hon'ble the Chief Justice, re-list before another bench of which one of us is not [a member]".

The matter was re-listed in the week commencing August 12, 2024 and interim bail directed to continue.

Notably, Justice Kumar also recently recused from hearing of former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia's bail plea in relation to the Delhi Liquor Policy case.

Boinpally, a former director of Robin Distilleries LLP and an alleged middleman is among the many people being investigated in the Delhi Liquor Policy case. He was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in October 2022, but one month later, got bail in the case.

However, this relief was short-lived as at the same time, Special Judge MK Nagpal allowed the Enforcement Directorate's plea to take Boinpally into custody for five days. Following the same, in October 2022, the businessman went back into custody.

Initially, Boinpally approached the Special Court and the Delhi High Court for bail, but was denied relief. The Special Judge held that Boinpally was one of the representatives of the South Group in the cartelization and played an active role in the payment of kickbacks as well as their recoupment. The High Court did not find ground to interfere with the Special Judge's order and dismissed Boinpally's bail plea citing "gravity of the allegations" and "credible material on record".

Assailing the High Court order, Boinpally moved the top Court, which granted him interim bail on March 20 this year. The interim bail was first extended on April 29 on a mentioning by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal. Thereafter, it was extended again on May 7.

Case Title: Abhishek Boinpally v. Directorate of Enforcement | Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 9038 of 2023