Delhi court dismisses Manish Sisodia’s second bail plea in liquor policy case

Delhi Rouse Avenue Court dismissed the second bail application moved by Delhi’s former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in the cases registered by CBI and ED in connection with the probe into the now scrapped Delhi liquor excise policy 2021-22.

On April 20, special judge for CBI and ED Kaveri Baweja had reserved the order for Tuesday after hearing arguments from the central agencies as well as Sisodia’s counsel.

Sisodia had also moved interim bail pleas in both cases to campaign for Lok Sabha elections.

Both the CBI and ED alleged that the irregularities were committed while modifying the Delhi Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the 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 alleged further.

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 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.

Sisodia’s boss Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 after skipping nine summons issued by the ED in the same case. He is currently in judicial custody till May 7.

On Tuesday, Kejriwal told the Supreme Court that his non-appearance before the ED in pursuance of the repeated summons and his alleged non-cooperation cannot be a ground necessitating his arrest.

Appearing for the Aam Aadmi Party convener, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi told a bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta that the central agency has no material available to take away his liberty.