Court turns down Sisodia bail plea again
Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court on Tuesday dismissed the bail plea of former deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia in the corruption and money laundering cases lodged by the CBI and the ED in relation to the alleged excise scam.
Special judge for CBI and ED, Kaveri Baweja, denied the relief, saying the stage was not right to grant the bail. The AAP said Mr Sisodia will approach the Delhi high court against the trial court’s denial of bail.
The senior AAP leader was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023, and later in an alleged money laundering case by the ED.
Earlier, he was denied bail by the Delhi high court and the Supreme Court in both ED and CBI cases. The apex court had also dismissed Mr Sisodia’s review petitions against the denial of bail. His curative petitions have also been dismissed.
In the Rouse Avenue court, the CBI as well as the ED alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Delhi Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to the licence holders, licence fee was waived or reduced and licences were extended without the competent authority’s approval. The probe agencies alleged that the beneficiaries diverted “illegal” gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection.
Opposing the bail, CBI prosecutor Pankaj Gupta said that Mr Sisodia does not satisfy the rigours of grant of bail under the PMLA. He said that Mr Sisodia is a powerful person with a “political clout”. He contended that Mr Sisodia, the main accused in the case, is also not entitled to parity. Mr Gupta said that the allegations against the AAP leader show that a prima facie case is made out regarding the destruction of evidence by him and of misuse of power, which may hamper the investigation.