Excise Policy Case: Manish Sisodia Moves Delhi High Court Seeking Bail

Former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday approached the Delhi High Court seeking bail in the corruption and money laundering cases lodged by the CBI and the ED in relation to the alleged excise policy scam. The plea was mentioned before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet PS Arora for an urgent hearing and the court agreed to list on Friday. "Let the judge go through the file so let it come tomorrow," the bench said.

Advocates Rajat Bhardwaj and Mohd Irshad, representing Sisodia, submitted that the petitioner is an MLA and urged the court to list both the pleas seeking bail for an urgent hearing. Sisodia has approached the high court challenging a trial court's April 30 order by which his bail pleas in the two cases were dismissed.

The trial court has dismissed Sisodia's bail pleas in corruption and money-laundering cases lodged by both the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with alleged irregularities in the formulation and execution of the excise policy of 2021-22. The special judge had denied the relief, saying the stage was not right to grant bail to Sisodia.

Investigating agencies have also arrested Delhi CM and Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal and BRS leader K Kavitha in the same case and they are also seeking bail.

Earlier, the court granted bail to AAP MP Sanjay Singh, who was in jail for more than 6 months, in connection with money laundering related to the same, Delhi Liquor Policy case.

However, AAP leaders have been alleging that no money was involved in this matter and it is only a conspiracy done by the BJP to stop AAP from campaigning for the crucial Lok Sabha elections 2024. The party has joined hands with Congress and contesting elections in Delhi and other states together, except for Punjab.