NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday relaxed the bail conditions of AAP leader and Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, requiring him to report to the investigating officer twice a week in the corruption and money laundering cases related to the Delhi excise policy case.
A two-judge bench of the top court, led by Justice B R Gavai and Justice K V Viswanathan relaxed the conditions, saying they were not necessary. “The petitioner shall regularly attend the trial,” the bench of the apex court, said.
The apex court, while granting bail to Sisodia, had put several conditions, including that of requiring him to report to the investigating officer twice a week in the corruption and money laundering cases related to the Delhi excise policy.
The Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) and ED (Enforcement Directorate) had registered the case against Sisodia in the now-scrapped Delhi liquor excise policy 2021-22, naming him as one of the accused in the case.
Sisodia had in the month of May first week moved the Delhi High Court challenging the Rouse Avenue Court’s April 30 order of dismissal of his bail in Delhi liquor scam case, probed by the CBI and ED.
The prosecutor for the CBI, Pankaj Gupta, opposed the bail plea of Sisodia and had said that the accused, Sisodia did not satisfy the rigours of grant of bail under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering). He said that Sisodia is a powerful person with a “political clout”.
In March, the trial court had dismissed his bail plea saying he (Manish Sisodia) was prima facie the “architect” of the alleged scam and had played the “most important and vital role” in the criminal conspiracy related to alleged payment of advance kickbacks of nearly `00 crore meant for him and his colleagues in the government.
The SC on December 14 last year rejected his plea seeking review of its earlier decision of October 30, denying him bail in the case.