Excise policy scam: HC asks ED to respond to Manish Sisodia’s bail plea in money laundering case

PTI, May 4, 2023, 11:54 AM IST

The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought response of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on a plea by former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia seeking bail in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise policy scam.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma issued notice to the ED on the regular bail plea and interim bail application of the senior AAP leader.

The high court granted time to the ED to file a verification report within a week and listed the matter for further hearing on May 11.

Sisodia has filed the regular bail plea as well as an interim bail application on grounds of illness of his wife.

Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan and Mohit Mathur, representing Sisodia, submitted that the AAP leader’s wife has been suffering from multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease, for the last 20 years and it was likely to worsen.

The ED’s counsel opposed the plea contending that Sisodia was the key conspirator in the case.

Sisodia has challenged a trial court’s April 28 order by which his bail plea was dismissed in the money laundering case on grounds that the evidence prima facie ”speaks volumes of his involvement in commission of the offence.” Sisodia’s regular and interim bail pleas in the case lodged by CBI are also listed for hearing during the day before Justice Sharma.

He was arrested by the CBI and ED in the corruption and money laundering cases on February 26 and March 9 respectively.

The trial court, while denying him relief in the ED’s case, had said the prosecution was able to show a genuine and prima facie case for Sisodia’s involvement in money laundering.

The ED had opposed the bail application before the trial court, asserting that the investigation was at a ”crucial” stage and claiming that the senior AAP leader had planted fabricated emails to show there was public approval for the policy.

The CBI and the ED had arrested Sisodia for alleged corruption in the formulation and execution of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 and for purportedly laundering the money generated from the policy.