Manish Sisodia’s judicial custody in Delhi excise case extended till November 22

mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, Oct 19, 2023: A Delhi court on Thursday extended the judicial custody of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the excise policy case till November 22.

 

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court told the Enforcement Directorate if the bribe that was allegedly paid for tweaking the Delhi excise policy is not part of a predicate offence, then it will be difficult for the federal probe agency to prove the charge of money laundering against former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti, which reserved its verdict on two separate regular bail pleas of Sisodia in the corruption and money laundering cases, told the Enforcement Directorate it cannot go by the assumption of bribe having been paid, and whatever protection an accused enjoys under law needs to be granted.

The remark by the bench came after senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Sisodia, said there was no allegation of bribe being part of the predicate offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case against the AAP leader.

Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26 for his alleged role in the ’scam’. He has been in custody since then.

The ED had arrested Sisodia in the money laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9 after questioning him in Tihar Jail.

Sisodia resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28.

The Delhi government implemented the policy on November 17, 2021, but scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption.

Under the new policy, according to the investigating agencies, the profit margin of wholesalers was increased from 5 per cent to 12 per cent for monetary considerations.

The probe agencies have alleged that the new policy resulted in cartelisation and those ineligible for liquor licences were favoured for monetary benefits.

However, the Delhi government and Sisodia have denied any wrongdoing and said the new policy would have led to an increase in the state’s excise revenue.

Courtesy: India Today