After 17 months, Sisodia walks free

NEW DELHI: Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia walked out of Tihar Jail on Friday after the Supreme Court granted him bail in cases registered against him by the Central probe agencies — Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) relating to the now-scrapped excise policy scam.

Sisodia remained behind bars for about 17 months with the Apex Court saying his long incarceration without trial had deprived him of the right to speedy justice.

As Sisodia exited the jail at 6:45 pm, hundreds of rain-soaked supporters and party workers welcomed him with showers of rose petals. Some even lifted him onto their shoulders, chanting “Inquilab Zindabad” (long live revolution).

Party leaders Atishi, Sanjay Singh, and Durgesh Pathak arrived at Tihar Jail to greet Sisodia, standing in the rain with umbrellas as they awaited the release of the former Delhi deputy chief minister.

“Namaskar to all of you from Azad (free) Sisodia. We have brought this legal battle to its logical end through the Constitution. I thank you all for being with me,” he said amid chants of “Kejriwal, Kejriwal”.

“Today truth has won. In the end, only truth wins,” said a post by “Team Kejriwal” on the Delhi chief minister’s official handle on X. Kejriwal is in Tihar jail in the same case.

Later in the evening, Sisodia met Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal at the CM’s residence.

The Apex Court, while hearing the bail pleas of Sisodia, noted that the “triple test’’ of the PMLA will not apply to him in light of the lengthy period of incarceration of 17 months and delay in trial. “In our experience, it appears that the trial courts and high courts appear to play safe in granting bail,’’ a bench of Justice B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan observed. After the Delhi High Court dismissed his bail application in May, Sisodia had moved the Supreme Court.

The right to a speedy trial and liberty are “sacrosanct”, and prolonged incarceration before being pronounced guilty of an offence should not be permitted to become “punishment without trial”, the Supreme Court said.

“We find that on account of a long period of incarceration running for around 17 months and the trial even not having been commenced, the appellant (Sisodia) has been deprived of his right to speedy trial,” the bench said in its 38-page verdict.

“Now, relegating the appellant to again approach the trial court and thereafter the high court and only thereafter this court, in our view, would be making him play a game of ‘Snake and Ladder’,” the bench said.

“It will be a travesty of justice to construe that the carefully couched order preserving the right of the appellant to revive his prayer for grant of special leave against the high court order, to mean that he should be relegated all the way down to the trial court,” the bench said.

“The memorable adage, that procedure is a handmaiden and not a mistress of justice rings loudly in our ears,” it said.

Referring to an earlier judgement of the top court, the bench noted the objective to keep a person in judicial custody pending trial or disposal of an appeal was to secure his attendance at trial.

“As observed time and again, prolonged incarceration before being pronounced guilty of an offence should not be permitted to become punishment without trial,” it said. The bench noted that the commencement of trial in both the cases is yet to see the “light of the day”.

The court said Sisodia was having deep roots in the society and there was no possibility of him fleeing away from the country and not being available to face the trial.

“In any case, conditions can be imposed to address the concern of the state,” it said.

Dealing with the apprehension raised by the counsel appearing for the CBI and the ED regarding the possibility of tampering the evidence, the bench observed the cases against Sisodia largely depends on documentary evidence which was already seized by the prosecution.

“As such, there is no possibility of tampering with the evidence. Insofar as the concern with regard to influencing the witnesses is concerned, the said concern can be addressed by imposing stringent conditions upon the appellant,” it said.

In its 38-page judgement, the apex court directed that Sisodia be released on bail on a personal bond of Rs 10 lakh with two sureties of the like amount.

The bench said Sisodia shall surrender his passport to the special trial court and shall report to the investigating officer every Monday and Thursday between 10 and 11 am.

After the bench pronounced its verdict, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, who represented the CBI and ED, urged that the same conditions as were imposed by the Apex Court on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal while granting him interim bail in the excise policy-related money laundering case be imposed on Sisodia.

While releasing Kejriwal on interim bail on May 10 to campaign for the Lok Sabha polls, the top court had imposed conditions that he would not visit the CM office or the Delhi Secretariat during the interim relief.

When Raju read out the conditions, Justice Gavai said: “We are not inclined. We have imposed conditions to address your concern.”

Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023 for the purported 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, 2023. He resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023.

The bench also referred to the October 30 last year order of the Apex Court which had denied bail to Sisodia in both these cases.

“A perusal of the aforesaid (October 30 order) would reveal that this court was concerned about the prolonged period of incarceration suffered by the appellant. After considering various earlier pronouncements, this court emphasised that the right to speedy trial is a fundamental right within the broad scope of Article 21 of the Constitution,” it noted. with agency inputs

.