May 20th 2024.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court is set to announce its decision on Tuesday regarding the bail requests of former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia. These requests were made in relation to the charges of money laundering and corruption filed by the ED and CBI respectively, in connection with an alleged liquor scam.
According to the cause list uploaded on the high court's website, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma is expected to give her ruling on both bail pleas at 5 PM on May 21. The court had previously reserved its decision on May 14 after hearing arguments from Sisodia's legal team, as well as the CBI and ED.
During the arguments, the Enforcement Directorate had asserted that they would name the Aam Aadmi Party as an accused in their next prosecution complaint in the money laundering case, which stems from the Delhi excise policy scam. On May 17, the ED filed a charge sheet against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the same case, also naming AAP as an accused.
In his plea for bail, Sisodia's counsel argued that the ED and CBI are still making arrests in the money laundering and corruption case, indicating that the trial is far from over. However, both investigative agencies have opposed Sisodia's bail requests, claiming that the accused are deliberately trying to delay the process of framing charges in the case.
Sisodia had challenged a trial court's decision from April 30, where his bail pleas were rejected. The trial court had dismissed his requests in both the corruption and money laundering cases, which were initiated by the CBI and ED respectively, in relation to alleged irregularities in the formulation and execution of the now-abolished Delhi excise policy for 2021-22.
According to the probe agencies, the accused had diverted "illegal" gains to themselves and made false entries in their account books to avoid detection. They also allege that these irregularities occurred during the modification of the excise policy, where undue favours were given to the license holders.
Sisodia was taken into custody by the CBI on February 26, 2023, on charges related to the "scam". He was later arrested by the ED in connection with the money laundering case, which arose from the CBI's FIR on March 9, 2023. Following his arrest, Sisodia resigned from his position in the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023.
The Delhi government had implemented the excise policy on November 17, 2021, but ultimately revoked it at the end of September 2022 due to allegations of corruption.
[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
[Generative AI is experimental.]
