30 April 2024 10:37 AM GMT
A Delhi Court on Tuesday dismissed the second regular bail pleas filed by Former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia in the money laundering and corruption cases connected to the liquor policy case.
Sisodia is presently in judicial custody in both cases.
Special judge Kaveri Baweja of Rouse Avenue Courts denied bail to Sisodia, after reserving the verdict in his bail pleas on April 20.
Advocate Vivek Jain appeared for Sisodia; Zoheb Hossain, special counsel for Enforcement Directorate (ED) and prosecutor Pankaj Gupta for Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Sisodia was denied bail by the trial court, Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court in both ED and CBI cases. The Supreme Court had also dismissed Sisodia's review petitions against the denial of bail. His curative petitions have also been dismissed.
CBI prosecutor, Pankaj Gupta, opposed the bail plea and said that Sisodia does not satisfy the rigours of grant of bail under the PMLA. He said that Sisodia is a powerful person with a “political clout”.
He further contended that Sisodia, who is the main accused in the case, is also not entitled to parity
Gupta said that the allegations against the AAP leader show that a prima facie case is made out regarding the destruction of evidence by him and of misuse of power, which may hamper the investigation.
Manish Sisodia was first arrested by CBI and ED on February 26 and March 9 last year respectively.
In the FIR registered by the CBI, Sisodia and others have been accused of being instrumental in 'recommending' and 'taking decisions' regarding the 2021-22 excise policy, “without the approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licensee post tender”.
The central agency has also claimed that the AAP leader was arrested because he gave evasive replies and refused to cooperate with the investigation, despite being confronted with evidence.
On the other hand, the Enforcement Directorate has alleged that the excise policy was implemented as part of a conspiracy to give wholesale business profit of 12 percent to certain private companies, although such a stipulation was not mentioned in the minutes of meetings of Group of Ministers (GoM).
The agency has also claimed that there was a conspiracy that was coordinated by Vijay Nair and other individuals along with South Group to give extraordinary profit margins to wholesalers. Nair was acting on behalf of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, according to the agency.
Sisodia's bail applications in both cases were rejected by Special Judge MK Nagpal (now transferred) on March 31 and April 28 last year. The Delhi High Court then denied bail to Sisodia in both cases after which he approached the Supreme Court challenging both these verdicts.
On October 30 last year, the Supreme Court refused to grant bail to the former Delhi deputy chief minister.