The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed reservations about the admissibility of messages as evidence in the Delhi liquor policy case and said that the entire case might fall flat in two minutes if the evidence is based on just "hearsay". The apex court made this observation while hearing the bail plea by former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, who has been accused of favouring certain business persons by coming up with a new excise policy.
The ED, in a supplementary charge sheet, has accused Sisodia of receiving bribes from Amit Arora, another businessman and an accused in the case, through Dinesh Arora. The agency has described this bribe as "proceeds of crime" under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
"Amit Arora paid Rs 2.2 crore to Manish Sisodia through Dinesh Arora for getting policy changes in his favour in the GoM report/excise policy 2021-22. This amount is directly a bribe/kickback to a government functionary and is proceeds of crime. In this manner, Manish Sisodia participated in the generation of this proceeds of crime," the ED said in its prosecution complaint filed in May.
The ED and the CBI have alleged that Delhi's excise policy for 2021-22 allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who paid bribes for licences.
Today, the top court questioned whether a policy decision could be legally challenged in the manner presented. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the corruption angle, contended that the policy was deliberately designed to favour specific individuals and submitted what they described as incriminating WhatsApp messages as evidence.
However, the SC expressed reservations about the admissibility of these messages and asked: "Have you seen them (Vijay Nair, Manish Sisodia on bribes) discussing this? Will it be admissible? Isn't the statement (by an approver) hearsay? It is an inference but has to be based on evidence. In cross-examination, this will fall flat in two minutes," the bench said.
The top court's observation comes just a day after Aam Aadmi Party's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh was arrested on Wednesday by the ED in the same case. Reports suggest that Singh was arrested because he allegedly received funds from Dinesh Arora. Today, the ED informed the court that the employee of Dinesh Arora gave Rs 2 crore cash at Sanjay Singh's residence.
The arrest came just a day after a Delhi court allowed Raghav Magunta, son of YSRCP MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, and Delhi-based businessman Dinesh Arora to turn approver in the case. The ED had arrested Arora in July when he was already declared an approver in a related corruption case being probed by CBI.
Meanwhile, the apex court has deferred the hearing of Sisodia's bail plea to October 12.