The Supreme Court on Monday told the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement that they cannot keep former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in jail indefinitely, reported Live Law.
Sisodia was arrested on February 26 in connection with alleged irregularities in the state government’s now-scrapped excise policy that came into effect in November 2021. On March 9, the Enforcement Directorate arrested him in the same case.
Hearing his bail petition on Monday, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti asked Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who was representing the agencies, when the arguments in the case will begin.
“Once a chargesheet is filed in a case, arguments on charge should commence immediately,” the bench said.
To this, Raju said that the agencies were considering making the Aam Aadmi Party an accused in the case. The bench then asked him to clarify the stage of the trial in the next hearing.
The next day, Raju told the court that the trial could be finished in nine to 12 months.
“You cannot keep me behind bars with 500 witnesses and 50,000 documents in the interim when the trial is to start and when there is no evidence linking me,” said senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Sisodia.
He submitted that there was nothing directly linking him and that he deserved to get bail as he was not a flight risk. Sisodia also told the court that no evidence of a money trail had been found against him, according to Live Law.
“What they say is that a company generated profits and since it is the policy which was created by me which helped the company, I am involved,” he said. “That is too far-fetched.”
The Supreme Court reserved its verdict on the bail petition.
Sisodia was denied bail by the Delhi High Court in the cases filed by the agencies on May 30 and July 3. Prior to that, his bail applications in both cases were also rejected by the Rouse Avenue Court.
He moved the Supreme Court on July 6.
What is the case about?
The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate have alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party government modified the liquor excise policy to ensure a 12% profit margin for wholesalers and a nearly 185% profit margin for retailers.
The Enforcement Directorate also claims that members of a so-called South Group had paid at least Rs 100 crore in kickbacks to leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party through businessman Vijay Nair.
The agency has alleged that the “South Group secured uninhibited access, attained stakes in established wholesale businesses and multiple retail zones [over and above what was allowed in the policy]”.
The Aam Aadmi Party and Sisodia have rejected these allegations.
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