Manish Sisodia seeks interim bail to campaign for Lok Sabha elections

FORMER DELHI deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia — who has been in judicial custody for over a year in relation to the excise policy case — moved an interim bail application before the Rouse Avenue Court on Friday, citing campaigning for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Earlier, Sisodia's counsel had moved a regular bail plea in Rouse Avenue Court a few months after the Supreme Court rejected his previous bail application. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had then told the apex court that it would conclude the trial in the next six to eight months. Almost six months have passed, but the charges have not been framed against him in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy case.

The Delhi court has kept the next hearing on April 15.

Sisodia is accused of extraprocedural interference in framing the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, tweaking it for the benefit of particular liquor entities and causing a loss of several hundred crores to the state exchequer.

He was first arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in February 2023, and then by the ED in March that year. Sisodia, in the ED chargesheet, was named a “key conspirator” in the case. He resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2022.

Court issues notice to ED and CBI

Meanwhile, a Delhi court on Friday issued notice to the ED and the CBI on Sisodia's interim bail plea. Special Judge for the CBI and ED, Kaveri Baweja, directed the central probe agencies to file their replies by April 20 — when the court is likely to take up the application for hearing.

The CBI as well as the ED have alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the 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 and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection, they added.

Archive The former deputy chief minister was first arrested by the CBI in February 2023.