New Delhi:

A Delhi court on Thursday extended till July 6 the judicial custody of AAP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the alleged excise policy scam being probed by the CBI.

Recently, the Delhi High Court had denied bail to him in the case.

A bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma had said that the applicant failed to pass the triple test for grant of bail in the corruption case and the twin conditions required under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

However, the high court had clarified that Manish Sisodia could continue to meet his ailing wife every week on the same terms as set earlier by the trial court.

In March this year, the Supreme Court also dismissed the curative petitions filed by the senior AAP leader challenging the dismissal of review pleas against its 2023 verdict, denying him bail in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam in the national capital.

In its judgement delivered on October 30, 2023, the top court denied bail to Manish Sisodia but said that if the trial proceeds slowly in the next three months, he may apply for bail afresh.

Special Judge Kaveri Baweja, of Rouse Avenue Court, had, on April 30, refused to grant bail to Manish Sisodia who was seeking regular bail a second time.

During the trial court’s decision to deny bail, it was noted that delays in the case proceedings were largely due to actions attributable to Manish Sisodia himself, dismissing his claims of undue delay.

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New Delhi:

Former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia approached the high court on Thursday seeking bail in the corruption and money-laundering cases lodged by the CBI and the ED respectively in relation to the alleged excise policy scam. The bail pleas are scheduled for hearing before Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma on Friday.

Sisodia approached the high court after a trial court refused to grant him bail in the matter on April 30.

The bail pleas were mentioned by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader’s counsel before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P S Arora for an urgent hearing, which agreed to list the same for Friday.

“Let the judge go through the file. So let it come tomorrow,” the bench said.

Advocates Rajat Bhardwaj and Mohammad Irshad, representing Sisodia, told the bench that the petitioner is an MLA and requested that both the pleas seeking bail be listed for an urgent hearing.

The trial court had dismissed Sisodia’s bail pleas in the corruption and money-laundering cases lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) respectively in connection with alleged irregularities in the formulation and execution of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22.

The beneficiaries diverted “illegal” gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection, the probe agencies have alleged.

The special judge had, in the April 30 order, denied the relief, saying the stage is not right to grant bail to Sisodia.

The AAP leader was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023 for his alleged role in the “scam”. The ED arrested the former deputy chief minister in a money-laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9, 2023.

Sisodia resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023.

The high court had dismissed Sisodia’s bail pleas in the CBI and ED cases on May 30 and July 3 last year respectively.

On October 30, 2023, the Supreme Court also refused to interfere with the high court’s verdict, saying the allegation by the probe agencies that “windfall gains” of Rs 338 crore were made by a few wholesale liquor distributors was “tentatively supported” by material and evidence.

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New Delhi:

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleged before a Delhi court on Saturday that AAP leader Manish Sisodia and other accused were delaying the trial in a money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy “scam”.

Opposing Mr Sisodia’s bail plea before Special Judge Kaveri Baweja, the agency also claimed that he was responsible for drafting the policy and advance kickbacks of Rs 100 crore were received by him and other members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The AAP leader had approached the court for relief, claiming there was a delay in starting the trial.

The central probe agency claimed that the “delay” was caused not by the prosecution but by the accused.

“The delay in the trial of the case has not been caused by the prosecution but by the accused persons. Concerted efforts were made on the part of the accused persons, including Sisodia, to delay the trial in the case,” the ED told the court in response to his second bail plea.

The judge, meanwhile, extended the judicial remand of Mr Sisodia till April 18 after he was produced before the court on the expiry of his custody.

During the proceedings, Mr Sisodia’s co-accused and party colleague, Sanjay Singh, who was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court, also appeared before the court.

The ED claimed that a total of 95 applications have been filed by the accused seeking similar prayers, of which six have been filed by Mr Sisodia.

It submitted that frivolous applications have been filed by the accused involved in the case, for which costs have also been imposed by the predecessor judge.

The judge will further hear the arguments on April 10.

The CBI as well as the ED have alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Delhi Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, licence fee was waived or reduced and licences were extended without the competent authority’s approval.

The beneficiaries allegedly diverted “illegal” gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection, the probe agencies have alleged.

Mr Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26, 2023, for his alleged role in the “scam”. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Sisodia in a money-laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9, 2023.

He resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A court in Delhi today extended the judicial custody of Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia till April 18 in a money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

Special Judge Kaveri Baweja extended Manish Sisodia’s judicial custody after he was produced before the court on the expiry of the judicial custody granted earlier.

His party colleague Sanjay Singh, a co-accused who was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court in the case, also appeared before the court for the proceedings.

The CBI as well as the Enforcement Directorate have alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Delhi Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, licence fee was waived or reduced and licences were extended without the competent authority’s approval.

The beneficiaries allegedly diverted “illegal” gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection, the probe agencies have alleged.

Manish Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26, 2023, for his alleged role in the “scam”.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Manish Sisodia in a money-laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9, 2023.

Manish Sisodia resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia has written a fresh letter from jail, saying that he will walk out of jail soon.

In the letter addressed to the people of his assembly segment, the jailed leader said his party is fighting for good education and schools, “just like everyone had fought for Independence”.

“The dream of independence came true only after the British dictatorship. Similarly, one day every child will get proper and good education,” said the AAP leader.

“Will meet outside soon,” he said in his letter from Tihar Jail.

Read | Sunita Kejriwal Reads Out Jailed Husband’s Statement, Background Raises Eyebrows

Mr Sisodia, who has been in jail in the liquor policy case for over 13 months, said even the Britishers were arrogant of their power and had imprisoned Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.

“The British too were very arrogant of their power and used to imprison anyone they wanted on false charges. Even they used to think these jail walls will break those fighting for freedom,” read the letter dated March 15.

Stating that Gandhi and Mandela are his inspiration, Mr Sisodia told the residents of his constituency, “You all are my strength. My love for you people increased further by being in jail.”

Read | Arvind Kejriwal’s 2nd Order As AAP Sends A “Government-From-Jail” Message

Mr Sisodia is among the first few AAP leaders arrested in the alleged liquor policy scam. The chief of his party, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and BRS leader K Kavitha were arrested in the case last month, just weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Another AAP leader, Sanjay Singh, who was also arrested in the case, was released earlier this week.

New Delhi:

Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia, arrested in the Delhi liquor policy case in February last year, on Tuesday told a Delhi court hearing his bail petition that no purpose will be served by keeping him in jail any further.

The former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi told Special Judge MK Nagpal that the investigation against him in the Enforcement Directorate’s money laundering case related to the alleged excise policy scam was already complete and there was no possibility of him hampering the probe or destroying evidence.

He also told the judge that he was ready to abide by any condition imposed by the court if it decides to grant him bail.

Mr Sisodia is currently lodged in Tihar jail.

Earlier, the court had sent him to judicial custody after the ED submitted that the case was at a crucial stage and if released, the accused might hamper the investigation.

The ED’s case is based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the excise policy.

The CBI had registered the case alleging that irregularities were committed while modifying the Delhi liquor policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced, and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority’s approval.

The beneficiaries diverted “illegal” gains to the accused and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection, according to the CBI.

The agency arrested Mr Sisodia in February 2023 and he was later taken into custody by the ED from Tihar jail.

Following his arrest, Mr Sisodia resigned as the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

A Delhi court on Wednesday preponed the hearing on the bail plea of former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in CBI and ED cases related to the Delhi Excise Policy case.

The Special Judge, Kaveri Baweja of the Rouse Avenue Court, after going through the submissions, decided to fix the matter for April 2, 2024. Earlier, the bail hearing was listed for April 4.

The court deferred the hearing on the bail application twice. Yesterday, it was adjourned for April 4.

Manish Sisodia has filed an application seeking a preponement of the date of his bail hearing. The application had sought a hearing to be fixed for April 1, 2024.

Earlier, the Special Judge, MK Nagpal, was hearing the plea. However, he was transferred to Tis Hazari Court on March 19. He had started hearing the plea after the curative petition of Manish Sisodia was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

On March 18, CBI opposed the bail plea and said that some high-profile people may be arrested. The investigation is going on and this accused may hamper it.

Senior advocate Mohit Mathur began by stating that the Supreme Court (SC) has observed that 13 months have passed and granted bail to Benoy Babu.

The senior advocate had also said “I (Manish Sisodia) satisfy the triple test. He is not at flight risk. There is no chance of tampering with evidence. There is no evidence left now. All have become approvers.”

He further submitted that, besides, the fact is that there is no loss to the exchequer but profit to the exchequer. No loss to even any private person or any consumer. No money was paid by him and vice versa, Mathur said.

He also argued that the main charge sheet and charge sheets have been filed. No development in terms of trial, or snail pace. There are 400-plus witnesses, and the trial has not commenced.

On the other hand, the bail plea was opposed by Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) Pankaj Gupta. He argued that there was no delay from our side. The trial starts after the arguments on charge. We’re trying to start that. The accused are delaying the trial.

The CBI APP submitted that some high-profile people may be arrested. The investigation is ongoing and this accused may influence the witnesses and hamper the investigation.

The application should be dismissed, Pankaj Gupta submitted.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A Delhi police officer who had allegedly manhandled former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on the premises of a court in the city has now misbehaved with him, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has claimed.

The AAP chief said this in an application filed in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court in which he has sought the removal of the officer from his security cordon.

In the application, Mr Kejriwal – who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the liquor policy case – has claimed that Assistant Commissioner of Police AK Singh had misbehaved with him while he was being brought to the court for his hearing in the remand application moved by the agency earlier on Friday. The nature of the alleged misbehaviour is not yet known.

Mr Singh is the same cop who was accused of restraining Mr Sisodia by the neck on the premises of the same court last year when reporters were asking him a question. The act was caught on video and Mr Sisodia had filed a written complaint. The Delhi Police had denied any wrongdoing and said the action shown in the video was necessary for security and that it was against the law for any accused to give statements to the media.

The police had also moved an application in the court, seeking its permission to produce Mr Sisodia only via video-conferencing. This, they had claimed, was necessary as producing him physically created “chaos” with AAP supporters and mediapersons gathering in the corridors of the court.

While Mr Sisodia was taken into custody in the Delhi liquor policy case in February last year, Mr Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on Thursday night, becoming the first sitting chief minister to face such an action. The AAP chief was produced in the Rouse Avenue court, which granted the agency his custody for seven days.

The financial crime fighting agency, which is investigating the money laundering angle in the case, had sought Mr Kejriwal’s custody for 10 days and said it needed to confront him with the other accused.

The agency has claimed that the chief minister and the AAP had received kickbacks in exchange for favours and that he was the “kingpin” and a key conspirator in the alleged scam.

The total proceeds of the crime, according to the ED, are Rs 600 crore. It has claimed that the Delhi liquor policy provided a profit margin of 12% for wholesalers and nearly 185% for retailers. Of the 12%, six was to be recovered from wholesalers as kickbacks for AAP leaders and a lobby called the South Group allegedly gave Rs 100 crore in advance to another accused in the case, Vijay Nair, who was linked to the ruling party in Delhi.

The Supreme Court has rejected Manish Sisodia’s curative petition challenging the top court decision rejecting his bail plea in liquor policy irregularities.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, with justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai and SVN Bhatti dismissed the curative petition filed by Manish Sisodia.

“We have gone through the Curative Petitions and the connected documents. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this Court in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs Ashok Hurra,” the top court said in its March 13 order.

“The Curative Petitions are dismissed,” the top court said.

Earlier on December 13, the top court rejected former Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Siodia’s review petition against top court order denying him bail in the excise policy irregularities case.

On October 30 2023 the top court dismissed Manish Sisodia’s bail plea.

The court had earlier noted that the existing excise policy was changed to facilitate and get kickbacks and bribes from the wholesale distributors by enhancing their commission/fee from 5 percent under the old policy to 12 percent under the new policy. Accordingly, a conspiracy was hatched to carefully draft the new policy, deviating from the expert opinion/views to create an eco-system to ensure unjust enrichment of the wholesale distributors at the expense of

government exchequer or the consumer. The illegal income (proceeds of crime, as per the DoE) would partly be recycled and returned in the form of bribes, it noted.

The probe agency has alleged that Vijay Nair, who was the middleman, a go-between, a member of AAP, and a co-confident of the appellant – Manish Sisodia, had interacted with Butchi Babu, Arun Pillai, Abhishek Boinpally and Sarath Reddy, to frame the excise policy on conditions and terms put forth and to the satisfaction and desire of the liquor group.

The policy favoured and promoted cartelisation and large wholesale distributors with high market share because of extraneous reasons and kickbacks, were ensured to earn exorbitant profits, CBI alleged, which was noted by the court.

The top court had earlier also noted the CBI’s submission that the excess amount of 7 percent commission/fee earned by the wholesale distributors of Rs. 338,00,00,000 (rupees three hundred thirty-eight crores only) constitute an offence as defined under Section 7 of the PoC Act, relating to a public servant being bribed. (As per the DoE, these are proceeds of crime). This amount was earned by the wholesale distributors in a span of ten months.

On July 3, 2023, the Delhi High Court denied him bail in both matters being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate.

In February 2023, Manish Sisodia was arrested by the CBI for alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of now-scrapped Delhi’s new excise policy. The policy was withdrawn amid allegations of foul play by the opposition. Manish Sisodia is currently in judicial custody.

According to the CBI, Manish Sisodia had played the most important and vital role in the criminal conspiracy and he had been deeply involved in the formulation as well as the implementation of the said policy to ensure the achievement of the objectives of the said conspiracy.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A Delhi court on Thursday extended the judicial custody of Aam Aadmi Party leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise scam.

Special Judge M K Nagpal extended the custody of the leaders after they were produced before the court on the expiry of their judicial remand granted earlier.

The ED sought their further judicial custody, saying that the case was at a crucial stage, and if released, the accused may hamper the investigation.

The CBI had registered the case alleging that irregularities were committed while modifying the Delhi excise policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority’s approval.

The beneficiaries diverted “illegal” gains to the accused and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection.

The ED started its investigation based on a CBI case, and it is probing the money laundering part of the alleged scam.

The CBI arrested Sisodia in February 2023 and he was taken in custody from Tihar Jail by the ED in March.

Sisodia resigned as Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi following his arrest by the CBI.

Sanjay Singh was arrested in October 2023 by the ED. He was elected for a second consecutive term to Rajya Sabha in January this year. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)