Former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia on Friday moved a Delhi Court seeking interim bail on the ground of campaigning for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Sisodia is presently in judicial custody in the alleged liquor policy scam case.
Special judge Kaveri Baweja of Rouse Avenue Courts sought response of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the interim bail plea and listed it for hearing on April 20. This was after Special counsel Zoheb Hossain appearing for ED as well as the counsel appearing for CBI sought some time to file replies in the matter. Advocate Vivek Jain appeared for Sisodia.
Sisodia denied bail multiple times
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. His second bail pleas are presently pending before the special judge. 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.
ED: Excise policy was implemented as part of a conspiracy
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.
