Delhi excise policy case: Supreme Court refuses to entertain Manish Sisodia’s bail pleas

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, June 4

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain bail pleas of senior AAP leader and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in corruption and money laundering cases lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the excise policy scam.

A Vacation Bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Sandeep Mehta said Sisodia can revive his bail pleas after the CBI and the ED and the CBI file charge sheet and prosecution complaint (equivalent of a charge sheet in a money laundering case), respectively.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Bench that the probe agencies would file their final charge sheet and prosecution complaint by July 3.

Senior AAP leader Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023, for his alleged role in the ‘scam’ and he resigned from the Delhi Cabinet two days later. The ED arrested him in a money-laundering case related to the scam on March 9, 2023, after questioning him in Tihar Jail.

Holding that the possibility of evidence-tampering by him can’t be ruled out, the Delhi High Court had on May 21 dismissed Sisodia’s bail pleas. He had challenged the high court’s order.

On behalf of Sisodia, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi submitted that trials in these cases have not yet started despite the former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister being in custody for almost 15 months. The trial was unlikely to begin in the near future as investigations were still going on.

Maintaining that it was not the right stage to grant bail, a Delhi special court had on April 30 dismissed Sisodia’s bail pleas in corruption and money-laundering cases for alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the excise policy of 2021-22.

The Delhi Government had implemented the new excise policy on November 17, 2021, but scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption. The profit margin of wholesalers was increased from 5 per cent to 12 per cent under the new policy, the probe agencies alleged.

The new policy resulted in cartelisation and those ineligible for liquor licences were favoured for monetary benefits, the agencies alleged. However, Sisodia denied any wrongdoing and claimed the new policy would have led to an increase in the city government’s revenue.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had on December 14, 2023, dismissed Sisodia’s pleas seeking review of its October 30, 2023, verdict dismissing his bail petitions in corruption and money-laundering cases related to the scam.

The top court had denied him bail, saying the allegations by the probe agencies that ‘windfall gains’ of Rs 338 crore were made by a few wholesale distributors was ‘tentatively supported’ by evidence.