Manish Sisodia moves Delhi High Court for bail in CBI case in Delhi excise scam

The Senior Aam Aadmi party leader and the  Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia moved Delhi High Court against the order by the trial court order which denied him bail in the case related to the alleged Delhi excise police scam by CBI.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma will hear the plea by the Minister tomorrow.

The bail plea of Sisodia was rejected by the Trial court on 31st  March.

The  Special CBI Judge MK Nagpal had noted that the former excise minister played the most important and vital role in the criminal conspiracy related to the alleged Delhi Excise Policy case. 

Sisodia has been behind bars since February 26 when he was arrested by the CBI. Subsequently on March 9, he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on allegations of money laundering. 

CBI had arrested the AAP leader on February 26 after an interrogation of more than eight hours. He was named as an accused in the FIR.

CBI alleged that Sisodia gave evasive replies during the probe and did not cooperate with the investigation, despite being confronted with evidence. The agency filed a charge sheet in the matter on November 25, 2022.

As per the FIR lodged by CBI, the former Delhi Cabinet Minister and others were instrumental in ‘recommending’ and ‘taking’ decisions regarding the Excise policy 2021-22 ‘without approval’ of the competent authority with an intention to ‘extend’ undue favours to the licensee post tender.

On February 27, the trial court had remanded Sisodia to CBI custody for five days. His custody was later extended for two more days.

On March 6, he was sent to judicial custody in the CBI case. It was during this judicial custody that ED arrested him under PMLA. The Enforcement Directorate had arrested Sisodia after questioning him inside Tihar jail.

On March 10, the same court had remanded Sisodia to ED custody for his alleged involvement in irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22. The custody was later extended to March 22.

The court had earlier observed that Sisodia was instrumental at every stage in formulation and implementation of the Excise policy and that his arrest in the money laundering case was fully justified.

ED had alleged that the Excise Policy 2021-22 was implemented as part of a conspiracy to give wholesale business profit of 12 percent to certain private companies. It said that such a stipulation was not mentioned in the minutes of meetings of the Group of Ministers (GoM).

The national agency further submitted that the conspiracy was coordinated by businessman Vijay Nair and other individuals, in connivance with people from the Southern part of the country, to give extraordinary profit margin to wholesalers.

As per ED, Nair was acting on behalf of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Sisodia.

It also accused Sisodia of destroying the evidence, alleging that the AAP leader destroyed 14 phones out of which only two were recovered. It was also submitted that the former Delhi Minister used sim cards and phones, which were purchased in the name of other individuals.

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