Manish Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26 for his alleged role in the ‘scam’.
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Monday told the CBI and ED that they cannot keep former deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia in jail “indefinitely” in Delhi excise policy cases.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti asked Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who appears for the two probe agencies, when arguments on the charges against Sisodia will begin in the court.
“You cannot keep him behind bars indefinitely. You cannot keep him behind bars like this. Once a chargesheet is filed in a case, arguments in the chargesheet should begin immediately,” the court told Raju.
CV Raju told the court that the cases against Mr Sisodia are at the stage of Section 207 of the CrPC (supply of documents to the accused) and after that, the chargesheet will begin.
“Why haven’t the charges started yet and when will they start? Tell us tomorrow (Tuesday),” Justice Khanna told Raju.
The top court was hearing the bail pleas of Sisodia, who was arrested in the excise cases probed by both the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
During the hours-long hearing, Raju said if a person of the rank of deputy chief minister and holding 18 portfolios, including that of the excise department, accepts bribes, a good example should be set.
“Just look at the role of this person. The consumers have been deprived of their money due to the policy changes. There are WhatsApp chats and other communications that show a conspiracy of money laundering,” Raju said while summarizing his arguments on why Sisodia should not be granted bail.
Mr Raju claimed that there was sufficient material to prove the offense of money laundering and to substantiate the allegation that Sisodia had tampered with evidence by destroying his mobile phones, reasons sufficient to deny bail.
“There was also a case of arm-twisting where a wholesaler was forced to give up his license while a company was given the license despite not meeting the criteria,” he said.
Mr. Raju referred to the statement of Delhi businessman Dinesh Arora, an accused-turned-approver, and claimed that he had told the investigating agencies about the bribes taken by Sisodia.
“He (Arora) has explained in his statement why he had not spoken about Mr Sisodia’s role earlier and said that he was afraid that harm would be done to him,” the ASG said.
The court asked whether prior permission has been granted to prosecute Mr Sisodia under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, to which Raju replied in the affirmative.
Section 17A provides a mandatory requirement for a police officer to seek prior permission from the competent authority before conducting any inquiry or investigation into an offense alleged to have been committed by a public servant under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act).
Raju alleged that the new excise policy encouraged cartelization and was designed in such a way that consumers ended up paying more.
The hearing remained inconclusive and will continue on Tuesday.
On October 5, the Supreme Court had asked a series of questions to the CBI and ED over the Delhi excise ‘scam’ and asked the anti-money laundering agency how a case against Sisodia was being prepared.
The top court had said that the fact that some lobby or pressure groups had sought a particular policy change does not imply that there was corruption or commission of crime unless there was bribery.
Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26 for his alleged role in the ‘scam’. He has been in custody since then.
The ED arrested him on March 9 in a money laundering case arising out of the CBI FIR after interrogating him in Tihar jail.
Sisodia resigned from the Delhi Cabinet on February 28.
The Supreme Court had on May 30 denied him bail in the CBI case, saying as Deputy Chief Minister and Excise Minister he was a ‘high-profile’ person who has the potential to influence the witnesses.
On July 3, the High Court had denied him bail in the money laundering case related to alleged irregularities in the city government’s excise policy, ruling that the charges against him were “very serious in nature”.
The Delhi government implemented the policy on November 17, 2021, but scrapped it in late September 2022 amid allegations of corruption.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
