The Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia till May 31 in the money laundering linked to the alleged excise or liquor policy 'scam'.
The Delhi High Court also on Tuesday reserved its judgment on bail pleas of former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in money laundering and corruption cases lodged by the ED and CBI respectively in connection with alleged liquor scam.
The high court had on May 14 reserved its order on the pleas after hearing arguments on behalf of the AAP leader, CBI and ED.
Manish Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023, for his alleged role in the "scam". The ED arrested him in the money laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9, 2023.
Manish Sisodia resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023.
The Delhi government implemented the policy on November 17, 2021, but scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption.
During the arguments, the ED contended that it would make the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) an accused in the next prosecution complaint (charge sheet) in the money laundering case stemming out of the Delhi excise policy scam.
On May 17, the ED filed a charge sheet against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case and also named AAP as an accused.
According to a news agency PTI report, while seeking bail for Manish Sisodia, his counsel had submitted that the ED and the CBI are still arresting people in the money laundering and corruption case and there is no question of early conclusion of the trial.
Both ED and CBI have opposed Sisodia’s bail pleas on the grounds that there are concerted efforts by the accused to delay the process of framing charges in the case.
Sisodia has challenged a trial court’s April 30 order by which his bail pleas were rejected. The trial court had dismissed Sisodia's bail pleas in the corruption and money laundering cases lodged by the CBI and ED respectively in connection with alleged irregularities in the formulation and execution of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22.
