The Delhi High Court dismissed the second regular bail plea filed by Former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and Aam Aadmi Party leader in the money laundering and corruption cases connected to the liquor policy case. Enforcement Department have arrested him over the Liquor Policy Scam.
Sisodia is presently in judicial custody in both cases. The bail was denied 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 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 âpolitical cloutâ. He further contended that Sisodia, who is the main accused in the case, is also not entitled to parity
It was submitted 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.
The central agency claimed that the AAP leader was arrested because he gave evasive replies and refused to cooperate with the investigation, despite being confronted with evidence. 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. According to the agency, Nair was acting on behalf of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
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 per cent to certain private companies, although such a stipulation was not mentioned in the minutes of meetings of Group of Ministers (GoM).
The Delhi High Court denied bail to Sisodia in both cases after which he approached the Supreme Court challenging both these verdicts. Advocate Vivek Jain appeared for Sisodia. Zoheb Hossain, special counsel for Enforcement Directorate ( ED ) and prosecutor Pankaj Gupta appeared for Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI ).
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