Excise policy cases: Supreme Court to hear AAP leader Manish Sisodia’s bail pleas on Monday

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia‘s bail pleas in corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. The former deputy chief minister of Delhi has sought bail contending that he has been in custody for 16 months and the trial against him has not made any progress since October last year. According to the cause list of July 29 uploaded on the Supreme Court website, a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan is slated to hear Sisodia’s pleas.

The apex court had on July 16 agreed to hear the pleas and sought responses from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Sisodia has also filed an application seeking revival of his bail petitions in the excise policy-linked corruption and money laundering cases.

The AAP leader was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023 in connection with alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22. The ED arrested him in the money laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9 last year.

He resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28 last year. Sisodia’s plea has said the law officer, appearing for the probe agencies, had told the top court on June 4 that the charge sheet and the prosecution complaint in the main excise policy case and the linked money laundering case, respectively, would be filed on or before July 3. A prosecution complaint is the ED’s equivalent of a charge sheet.

On June 4, the apex court had refused to entertain Sisodia’s bail pleas in the two cases.

It had said Sisodia could revive his petitions for bail after the ED and the CBI file the final prosecution complaint and the charge sheet, respectively, in these cases.

The top court had added that in the event of such a bail application being filed, the same would be considered on its own merits as already observed by this court in its October 30, 2023 order.

Sisodia had earlier moved the apex court challenging the Delhi High Court’s May 21 order dismissing his bail pleas. He had challenged in the high court a trial court’s April 30 order rejecting his bail applications in the two cases.

On October 30 last year, the top court denied him bail in the two cases, saying the accusation of “windfall gains” of Rs 338 crore to wholesale liquor dealers was “tentatively supported” by evidence.

While dismissing the regular bail plea, the top court had given Sisodia the liberty to approach the courts for relief if there was a change in circumstances or the trial got protracted.