Delhi excise policy case: Manish Sisodia says ED, CBI couldn’t prove any money has reached him

Former Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who was arrested in the excise policy case, has told the court that the central agencies (Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate) have not been able to prove that any money has reached his hands.

His advocate Mohit Mathur told Special Judge Kaveri Baweja, Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi, that the AAP leader was eligible for bail as “there is no loss to the government exchequer. There is no loss to any individual. None of us who are consumers have been cheated of anything”.

Sisodia, who was arrested by the CBI in February last year and by the ED a month later, has been named a “key conspirator” in the case by the ED. 

The probe agencies have accused the former deputy CM of extra-procedural interference in framing the Delhi excise policy, which was scrapped within months of its implementation. It is alleged that Sisodia changed it for the benefit of particular liquor entities and causing loss of several hundred crores to the state exchequer.

Sisodia's advocate said the AAP leader had satisfied the triple test for bail which states that bail may be granted if it is established that the accused is not at flight risk, not influence witnesses and not tamper with the evidence. "Sisodia was not influential anymore since he was no longer the deputy CM," Mathur said as mentioned in a report by the Indian Express.

“I have been in custody for 13 months…I have never misused the liberties granted to me by the court,” said Mathur on behalf of Sisodia, adding that co-accused (in the ED excise policy case) Benoy Babu also spent 13 months in incarceration and was granted bail by the Supreme Court on grounds of delay.

Last month, the Supreme Court dismissed the curative petitions filed by Sisodia against its October 30 last year verdict dismissing his bail pleas in the corruption and money laundering cases related to the Delhi excise policy scam.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice D. Y. Chandrachud, which considered the curative pleas in-chamber, also rejected his application for listing the petitions in the open court.

A curative petition is the last legal recourse in the apex court and is generally considered in-chamber unless a prima facie case is made out for reconsideration of the verdict.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court granted bail to AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, who was also arrested in the Delhi liquor policy scam case.

A bench presided over by Justice Sanjiv Khanna granted bail to Singh after the ED said it did not have any objection to granting relief to Singh. The bench also comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and P B Varale clarified that it had not said anything on the merits of the case.