The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to entertain former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s petitions seeking bail in the cases filed against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, PTI reported.

The court, however, allowed the Aam Aadmi Party leader to revive the petitions once the CBI had filed its chargesheet and the Enforcement Directorate its prosecution complaint in the Delhi liquor policy case. A prosecution complaint is the Enforcement Directorate’s equivalent of a chargesheet.

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Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing both agencies, told a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Sandeep Mehta that the chargesheet and prosecution complaint would be filed in three to four weeks, Live Law reported.

Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Sisodia, said that his client had been in jail for about 15 months, even as the trial was yet to start. He contended that the investigating agencies themselves delayed the trial by filing supplementary chargesheets and making arrests.

Justice Kumar told the solicitor general that on a preliminary reading, there was “no delay attributable to the petitioner”. Justice Mehta, however, observed that the delay could not be attributed either to Sisodia or the prosecution, given the volume of documents and evidence in the case.

Liquor policy case

The Enforcement Directorate’s case is based on a first information report registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation alleging irregularities in the Delhi government’s now-scrapped liquor policy.

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The agencies have alleged that Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party government modified the policy to ensure a 12% profit margin for wholesalers and a nearly 185% profit margin for retailers.

The former deputy chief minister is accused of extra-procedural interference in framing the policy.