Bhagavad Gita, meds, spectacles, pen and diary: Items Sisodia can take to jail

Manish Sisodia jail: Aam Aadmi Party leader will face a bail hearing before Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Friday.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia has been remanded to judicial custody till March 20 in connection with the liquor excise policy scam in Delhi. This means he will remain in Delhi's Tihar Jail - where party colleague Satyendar Jain is also lodged in a money laundering case for now.

AAP leader Manish Sisodia after being produced in the Rouse Avenue Court in New Delhi on Saturday. (PTI)

Special Judge MK Nagpal sent Sisodia to judicial custody after observing the Central Bureau of Investigation had not sought further charge of Delhi's ex-education minister. The agency has, though, reserved the right to do so.

Sisodia can a copy of the Bhagavad Gita and a diary and pen to prison, in addition to spectacles and some prescribed medicines. The court also directed prison authorities to consider his request to be kept in the jail's meditation cell.

Sisodia - the national capital's deputy chief minister till he quit last week after his arrest by the CBI - will argue for bail before the same court on Friday.

READ | Liquor policy case: Manish Sisodia to remain in jail till March 20

He had earlier approached the Supreme Court but his petition was junked; the top court admitted it had the authority to intervene but said doing so would set a bad precedent. It was also pointed out Sisodia had not exhausted alternate legal remedies before approaching the court.

Manish Sisodia, 51, was taken into custody by the Central Bureau of Investigation on the night of February 26, after which the Rouse Avenue Court sent him to agency custody for five days. After his arrest the CBI said Sisodia had been evasive during eight hours of questioning.

READ | In Delhi excise policy case, timeline of how Sisodia landed in jail

Sisodia and Delhi's ruling AAP immediately approached the Supreme Court but were shot down and told to move the lower courts first.

The Rouse Avenue Court was then moved, with the Sisodia camp arguing that no fruitful purpose would be served by keeping him in custody. In his bail plea Sisodia also argued that CBI officials were asking him the same questions.

Kejriwal's No 2 has been accused of corruption in connection with the (now scrapped) liquor excise policy of Delhi, which the CBI claims provided him and others with kickbacks. The investigation was launched after a probe was recommended by Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena.

The AAP has denied all charges and has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party - in power at the centre - of targeting its rivals with investigative agencies.

Sisodia's arrest has triggered a wave of protests by opposition parties, including Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party.

Pawar this morning referred to an open letter to prime minister Narendra Modi - signed by himself and eight opposition leaders, including Delhi chief minister and AAP boss Arvind Kejriwal - and asked for their concerns to be heard.

READ | 'Take our concerns seriously…': Sharad Pawar warns PM Modi

The letter was signed by Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann (also an AAP leader) and the chief ministers of Bengal - the Trinamool's Mamata Banerjee - and Telangana - K Chandrashekar Rao of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi.

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party boss Akhilesh Yadav and Bihar deputy chief minister, Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal - whose mother Rabri Devi's home was visited by the CBI today - also signed.