‘Docs show Sisodia’s neck-deep involvement in Delhi excise scam’

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday opposed in the Supreme Court the bail plea of AAP leader Manish Sisodia, claiming it has documents to show his “neck-deep involvement” in the alleged Delhi excise policy “scam”.

Sisodia, a former deputy chief minister, has sought bail in the separate corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged scam contending that he has been in custody for 17 months and trial against him has not started yet.

Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, who appeared for the ED, told a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan that it was not a “fabricated case” as there were a lot of evidence which indicated Sisodia’s direct involvement.

Highlighting the delay in the progress of these cases, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, said there were a total of 493 witnesses and 69,000 pages of documents in the corruption and money maundering cases lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED, respectively.

“Why should I (Sisodia) be in jail after 17 months is the larger liberty question,” Singhvi told the bench, adding, “What is the purpose of keeping me behind the bars?”

Countering his submissions, Raju said, “I have documents to show his (Sisodia) neck-deep involvement in the matter. It is not as if he is an innocent person and (was just) picked up.”

He argued that there was no delay on the part of the probe agencies in the proceedings in these cases and those accused in the twin cases have taken five months for inspecting documents which were not relevant to the trial.

When Raju referred to the details of the excise policy, the bench asked,”Where do you draw the line between policy and criminality?”

Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023 for his alleged role in the liquor policy case. 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 CBI and the ED have lodged separate cases in the matter which pertains to alleged irregularities in the formulation and execution of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22.