HC grants ED, CBI time to respond to Sisodia’s bail petitions

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday informed the Delhi high court that it is readying another supplementary prosecution complaint in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy 2021-22, asking for an additional week to file its response in a bail plea filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia.

Sisodia, the former Delhi deputy chief minister, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26, 2023 and was later sent to Tihar jail, from where he was arrested by ED — which is carrying out a separate probe into the policy on March 9, 2023.

The AAP leader approached the high court with a bail plea after a city court on April 30 rejected his petition.

“We need a week’s time. The investigating officer (IO) is in the midst of preparing supplementary prosecution complaint (charge sheet). Another person is in judicial custody and the proceedings are going on in Supreme Court regarding a co-accused (chief minister Arvind Kejriwal),” ED’s counsel Zoheb Hossain submitted before a bench of justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.

The counsel representing CBI also sought a week’s time to file a reply in the matter.

Opposing the request, Sisodia’s counsel Vivek Jain argued that the AAP leader is currently in judicial custody, and the ED had earlier assured the Supreme Court that the trial would be completed within six months. Jain pointed out that successive complaints are being filed by the agency, causing delays in the proceedings.

Considering the arguments, justice Sharma granted ED and CBI four more days to respond to Sisodia’s plea and scheduled the matter for May 13.