E-Paper
Manish Sisodia granted bail by Supreme Court in Delhi excise policy case
Manish Sisodia will walk out of jail after 17 months. He was arrested in February last year.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in cases related to the Delhi excise policy case.
The court granted regular bail to Manish Sisodia in cases probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the now-scrapped excise policy. Sisodia will walk out of jail after 17 months.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan said that it would be a “travesty of justice” to relegate him to the trial court for seeking bail in these cases.
Also Read | Manish Sisodia granted bail on these 4 conditions in Delhi excise policy case
The court directed Sisodia to furnish a bail bond of ₹10 lakh with two sureties, surrender his passport, and report twice a week on Monday and Thursday before the Investigating Officer. It said he should not make any attempt to influence witnesses or tamper with evidence. The apex court had reserved its order in the case on August 6.
The bench also refused to accept ED’s request to restrict Manish Sisodia from visiting the Delhi secretariat or the chief minister’s office as was done in the case of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, when he was granted interim bail to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.
The CBI and ED had argued that the petition was not maintainable as Sisodia was required to first approach the trial court.
Also Read | Documents show Manish Sisodia's neck-deep involvement in Delhi excise "scam": ED to SC
This was the third time when Sisodia had approached the top court for bail. Last year, on October 30, the top court refused to grant him bail but kept a window open by allowing him to revive his bail plea if the trial fails to conclude in the next six to eight months or proceeds at a snail’s pace.
As the trial failed to begin in six months, Manish Sisodia sought bail on the grounds of delay, but the Delhi high court rejected his plea on May 21. He approached the top court in June when ED told a vacation bench that it would be filing its complaint (or charge sheet) by July 3. Recording this submission, the court refused to go into the merits of the petition. Last month, Sisodia then filed his third plea for bail, taking a second shot against the high court order of May 21.
What is the case against Manish Sisodia?
Manish Sisodia was arrested in February 2023 by CBI followed by ED a month later after a case was registered based on a complaint by Delhi L-G VK Saxena in July 2022 alleging irregularities in the excise policy.
Besides Sisodia, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and AAP MP Sanjay Singh have also been arrested in connection with the ED probe. While Singh is out on bail, the Delhi CM is in judicial custody and is lodged in Tihar Jail.
In the first information report (FIR) filed by the CBI, Sisodia has been accused of being “instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to excise policy for the year 2021-22 without the approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licensee post tender”.
Meanwhile, in the case filed by the ED, Sisodia has been accused of using kickbacks received from the excise policy to fund the Aam Aadmi Party's 2022 Punjab election campaign.
