Excise policy case: Delhi court extends Sisodia’s ED custody by five days

he anti-money laundering agency, requesting for the extension of custody, submitted that they have to further get Sisodia confronted with a few people, including Dinesh Arora, Amit Arora, C. Arvind, and Arava Gopi Krishna

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday extended the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody of former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia for five more days in connection with a money laundering probe into the alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the Delhi excise policy 2021-22.

Delhi former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was arrested on March 9 by ED  (Twitter Photo)

ED arrested Sisodia on March 9 while he was already in Tihar Jail in connection with the case lodged by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He was produced before the Rouse Avenue court on March 10 and remanded to ED custody for seven days. The ED, during Friday’s hearing, sought a seven-day extension of Sisodia’s custody, but the court granted five days.

The ED told the court that crucial information had come to light during Sisodia’s custody and he had to be confronted with other accused people, including Dinesh Arora, Amit Arora, C Arvind, and Arava Gopi Krishna.

ED pointed out that they received around 123,000 emails as well as mobile data and iCloud data as evidence, which is still being analysed. ED said the ongoing investigation revealed that Sisodia’s phone was destroyed on the day Delhi’s lieutenant governor’s letter recommending a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities was published by the media.

Senior advocates Mohit Mathur and Siddharth Aggarwal appearing for Sisodia, opposed the ED’s demand for the extension of custody and submitted that the application moved by ED is identical to the application moved by the CBI, and they have not submitted anything regarding the recovery of the proceeds of crime.

Mathur said that ED kept Sisodia under remand for seven days but interrogated him only for 11 hours. Sisodia also told the court that ED only interrogates him for half-an-hour at a stretch and then takes breaks, there are no interrogations during the first half of the day and he is interrogated only in the second half.

ED rebutted the argument, claiming they have CCTV footage to prove that he is being interrogated for four or five hours daily.

The court after hearing the arguments and after going through the submitted documents extended Sisodia’s custody till March 22 and asked the probe agency to produce him in court again on that date.