A Delhi court had deferred hearing on Manish Sisodia’s bail plea after noting that an application related to the case was pending before the Supreme Court. Today (4 March), incarcerated AAP leader Manish Sisodia requested an expedited hearing for his two curative petitions in the Supreme Court.
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NEW DELHI: Today, jailed AAP leader Manish Sisodia petitioned the Supreme Court for an expedited hearing of his two curative petitions. These petitions challenge the court’s 2023 ruling denying him bail in the corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scandal.
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Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing Sisodia, informed a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra that a trial court had postponed hearing the bail plea until the curative petitions were resolved. In response, the bench suggested,
“Just send an email, we will look at it.”
A Delhi court had postponed the hearing on Sisodia’s bail plea, citing a pending application related to the case before the Supreme Court.
On December 14, 2023, the highest court dismissed Sisodia’s requests for a review of its October 30 ruling, which rejected his bail pleas in the corruption and money laundering cases related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scandal. The apex court declined his bail, stating that the probe agencies’ allegations of “windfall gains” totaling Rs 338 crore by a few wholesale distributors were “tentatively supported” by evidence.
Sisodia was apprehended by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26, 2023, in connection with the “scam.” The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him in a money laundering case linked to the CBI FIR on March 9, 2023, after interrogating him in Tihar Jail. Sisodia resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023.
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The Delhi government had introduced the new excise policy on November 17, 2021, but revoked it at the end of September 2022 amid corruption allegations. According to the investigating agencies, the profit margin for wholesalers was raised from 5 percent to 12 percent under the new policy. They claim that the new policy led to cartelization and favored ineligible candidates for liquor licenses in exchange for financial benefits. However, both the Delhi government and Sisodia have refuted any wrongdoing, asserting that the new policy would have boosted the city government’s revenue.
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