Delhi court reserves order on Manish Sisodia's bail plea in liquor policy case

Delhi court reserves order on Manish Sisodia’s bail plea in liquor policy case

Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court on Saturday reserved the order on a plea filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, seeking bail in the now-scrapped liquor policy case.

Special judge for CBI and ED, Kaveri Baweja, reserved the order for April 30 after hearing arguments from the central probe agencies as well as the counsel appearing for Sisodia.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader had also moved interim bail pleas in both cases to campaign for the Lok Sabha polls. However, the AAP leader’s counsel told the court today that the plea has become ‘infructuous’ as the regular bail plea is being reserved.

On the other hand, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) argued that the former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister did not satisfy the rigours of the grant of bail.

The CBI counsel submitted that Sisodia had earlier been denied bail, and that he could influence the investigation because this court itself accepted that he was the mastermind.

“Sisodia is the kingpin and a mastermind. If released, there will be tampering and destruction of evidence,” the lawyer appearing for the CBI claimed.

Earlier, respective lawyers appearing for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Manish Sisodia had disagreement with regard to whether the trial court should decide his second bail plea by testing the alleged delay in trial or the merits of the entire case and allegations against him.

The Supreme Court last year, while dismissing Manish Sisodia’s bail plea in the Delhi liquor policy case, had granted him the liberty to apply for bail again if the trial proceeded at a “snail’s pace”.

ED lawyer, advocate Zoheb Hossain, had told the court that the Supreme Court was clear to say that if an application seeking bail was filed by Sisodia, the court would have to consider it on its merits.

However, senior advocate Mohit Mathur opined that the same would mean, ‘merits of the bail application’ and not the merits of the entire case.

Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested by the CBI in February last year for alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the liquor policy 2021-22.

Shortly after his arrest by the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate also arrested him in a money laundering case stemming from the FIR filed by the CBI on March 9 last year.

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