A Delhi court rejected the bail application of former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia on Tuesday. Sisodia has been in jail since February 2023 in connection with a case pertaining to the Delhi excise policy scam.
Special Judge (PC Act) Kaveri Baweja rejected Mr. Sisodia’s bail in both the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) cases.
A detailed order is awaited.
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This is the second time that the trial court has rejected Mr. Sisodia’s bail plea. His bail was first rejected on March 31, 2023. On April 28, the trial court rejected his bail application in the ED case.
The Delhi High Court upheld the trial court’s orders and so did the Supreme Court.
Sisodia the mastermind
During the hearing, the CBI submitted that Mr. Sisodia is the “mastermind” and “architect” of the alleged Delhi Excise scam.
Zoheb Hossain, counsel for ED told the court that the Delhi excise policy was meant to be an “evergreen vehicle” to accumulate illegal gains.
Counsel representing the AAP leader argued that he has been jailed for over 14 months and that the trail had continued “indefinitely.”
Intiated by the L-G
The case against Mr. Sisodia is based on a FIR initially filed by the CBI on a complaint by the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi alleging multiple irregularities in the Delhi excise policy-2021-22, which was subsequently withdrawn by the state.
After the CBI case, the ED filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, alleging that the money earned through the excise policy was diverted through “hawala” channels to be spent on the AAP’s campaign in Goa ahead of the Assembly elections there in 2022.
The CBI and ED have made multiple arrests in this case in the last two years including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, AAP’s RS MP leader Sanjay Singh, communications head Vijay Nair, and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha.
Mr. Kejriwal and Ms. Kavitha are in jail and their bail applications are pending with different courts, Sanjay Singh was released on bail on April 3.
