Sisodia moves Delhi HC against bail rejection

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia on Thursday approached Delhi high court, two days after he was denied bail by a city court in the separate cases against him in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy 2021-22. The court agreed to list the petition for Friday.

Advocate Rajat Bharadwaj, representing the former deputy chief minister urged the bench of acting chief justice Manmohan and justice Manmeet PS Arora to list Sisodia’s plea for Friday, citing urgency due to ongoing Lok Sabha polls, which are scheduled to be held in Delhi on May 25. “This is a bail application by MLA. The urgency is ongoing elections,” Bharadwaj submitted.

Arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26, 2023, and then by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 9, 2023, Sisodia’s plea before the high court painted a picture that the city court’s order amounted to putting a death knell on the fundamental right of “fair trial” and “life and liberty” and suggested that the expectations of a fair trial and transparency by an accused would be discouraged.

The petition underscored that Sisodia is a victim of political witch-hunt and has been arrested by the probe agencies with an ulterior motive of maligning his reputation.

On Tuesday, the city court, while denying him bail by two separate judgments in the cases, ruled that Sisodia individually, and along with other accused, contributed to the “delay” in court proceedings related to alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.

“The record of the case reveals that different accused persons moved multiple applications on a piece-meal basis, for supply of documents. The delay in progress of the case is also attributable to the accused/applicant, besides other accused persons,” the court noted while denying bail in the CBI case.

Rejecting the bail plea in ED’s case, the court said, “It is apparent that the applicant (Sisodia) individually, and along with different accused have been filing one or the other application/making oral submissions frequently, some of them frivolous, that too on a piecemeal basis, apparently as a concerted effort for accomplishing the shared purpose of causing delay in the matter.”

Special judge Kaveri Baweja, in both verdicts, rejected Sisodia’s reasoning that he was entitled to seek bail by the top court’s October 30, 2023. Sisodia’s counsel cited the order that said “in case the trial is protracted and proceeds at a snail’s pace in the next three months”, but Baweja remarked that the consistent advancement of the case, despite attempts to impede it, did not warrant the label of a “snail’s pace”.

Rebutting the court’s findings in both orders and calling them “patently and gravely perverse”, Sisodia, in his petition in the high court, asserted that the trial court could not attribute the slow pace of proceedings to him since the applications, which were also allowed by the special court, were moved by him to exercise his legal right and in the interest of fair trial.

“That the finding of the Ld special court in counting these applications as being the factor for delay of trial is on the face of it perverse and nothing but a dismissal of the regular bail application on specious grounds. The Ld special court also seem to suggest that applicant should seek some other forum for such normal course application — where there are none. The said fact also reveal the state of affair and circumstances to which Applicant is being relegated in complete negation of fair trial,” the plea read.

Sisodia urged the court to urgently intervene in the matter, arguing that the delay in the trial is not attributable to him but was caused by ED and CBI.

CBI, Sisodia’s plea claimed, continued further investigation and arrested the accused despite filing multiple chargesheets. ED, Sisodia’s plea claimed, filed additional documents on December 6, 2023 to the “already filed complaints” with the delay of more than a year.

The petition contended that Sisodia neither received nor ever gained any undue advantage in relation to any of the offences alleged in the FIR registered by CBI and there is no material against him that points to the fact that there was a demand of any alleged pecuniary advantage or benefit. He further asserted that no offence even under the PMLA is made out against him.

CBI arrested Sisodia on February 26, 2023, stating that it had recovered several incriminating evidence in the case, and to conduct a fair investigation, his custody was required. The AAP leader was later sent to Tihar Jail by Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court, from where he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) — which is carrying out a separate probe into the policy in connection with alleged money laundering — on March 9, 2023.

Sisodia was accused of making changes in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy of 2021 to benefit a group of liquor dealers from the south, referred to as the South Group, causing wrongful loss to the exchequer by increasing profit margin under the new regime.

The CBI has already filed chargesheets in connection with the crime registered under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act against the senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader while the ED claimed that ₹100 crore kickback was paid by the beneficiary companies, and Sisodia helped them generate proceeds of crime by raising the profit margin from the existing 5% to 12% under the new policy.

The Supreme Court in March had dismissed the curative petition filed by Sisodia challenging the October 30, 2023 order, refusing him bail in the CBI and ED cases.

Delhi excise policy case has embroiled several high-profile names, including Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislator K Kavitha and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who are presently incarcerated in the Capital’s Tihar jail.

AAP MP Sanjay Singh’s release last month came after the top court asked the agency why Singh should be kept behind bars after serving six months in jail, considering that there doesn’t appear to be any concrete evidence against him, and no money has been recovered linking him to the alleged money laundering offence.

Another AAP lawmaker Satyendar Jain is also lodged in Tihar jail over charges of money laundering in a different case.