Sisodia seeks bail from HC in Delhi Excise Policy case

New Delhi, May 2 , 2024 : Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia on Thursday approached the Delhi High Court seeking bail in the Delhi excise policy case. The bail plea was mentioned for an urgent hearing and will come up in court on May 3. Sisodia has sought bail in both cases, one related to the money laundering registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the other being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A Delhi Court had earlier, on two occasions, rejected Sisodia’s bail plea. His first bail plea in the CBI’s case was rejected on March 31, 2023. The second bail plea was also rejected by the trial court in the ED case on April 29, 2023 leading to the present plea before the High Court. The Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court had also dismissed Sisodia’s review petitions against the denial of bail in both ED and CBI cases. His curative petitions have also been dismissed in both ED and CBI cases. The Apex Court, while dismissing his bail plea, had last year said he could file a fresh bail plea before the trial court if the trial proceeds at a snail’s pace.
Manish Sisodia was first arrested by the CBI on February 26 and then by the ED on March 9 last
year, respectively. The CBI alleged that Sisodia and others have been instrumental in ‘recommending’ and ‘taking
decisions’ regarding the 2021-22 excise policy. They had taken decisions “without the approval of competent authority to extend undue favours to the licensee post-tender,” the CBI alleged. The central agency has also claimed that the AAP leader was arrested because he gave evasive replies and refused to cooperate during the investigation, despite being confronted with evidence. The Enforcement Directorate alleged that the excise policy was implemented as part of a conspiracy to give wholesale business profit of 12 per cent to certain private companies, although
such a stipulation was not mentioned in the minutes of meetings of the Group of Ministers (GoM). The agency has also claimed that another accused, Nair was acting as a middleman on behalf ofDelhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. Allegations against Sisodia are that he connived with the Delhi government officials to grant liquor licenses to certain traders in exchange for bribes. The conspiracy to formulate a new excise policy was hatched in connivance with the AAP leaders and Delhi government officials
and was coordinated by Vijay Nair and other individuals, along with South Group, to give
extraordinary profit margins to wholesalers. It is alleged that AAP made huge profits from the New Excise Policy, the proceeds of which wentto the AAM Aadmi Party funds and were used for election campaigns, causing a huge loss to the government exchequer.