NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on July 28 AAP leader Manish Sisodia’s plea for interim bail on account of his wife’s illness. Seeking responses of CBI and ED, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Bela Trivedi and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said, “For his medical reasons, we will hear.”
Sisodia sought the interim relief challenging the orders passed by Delhi HC rejecting his bail in the cases filed by CBI and ED in the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam. Appearing for Sisodia, Senior Advocate AM Singhvi said that his wife was suffering from a “progressive disease.” Considering his submissions, the bench said that it was familiar with the nature of the illness and acceded to his request to consider the plea.
Sisodia was arrested on February 26 by CBI after nearly eight hours of questioning pursuant to an FIR registered against him on August 17, 2022 under Section 120B of IPC read with Section 477 IPC and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. He was also arrested by the ED on March 9 in a money laundering case.
Seeking bail, Sisodia said that the CBI’s chargesheet against him listed offences that are punishable with imprisonment of less than seven years. It was also contended that no proceeds of crime have been traced to him in the probe that has been conducted so far.
Delhi HC had denied him bail on July 3 in the ED case and on May 30 in the CBI case. While denying him bail in the CBI case, Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma had termed allegations of misconduct against him “serious” and said that the excise policy was formed at the instance of the ‘South Group’ with malafide intention to give undue advantage to them.
The HC said, “The gravity and the allegations do not entitle the accused to be admitted to bail...the petitioner being an influential person and having held the position of Deputy Chief Minister having 18 portfolios and the witnesses being mostly public servants, the possibility of witnesses being influenced cannot be ruled out.”
Justice Sharma while denying him bail in the ED case had said that Sisodia didn’t meet the twin conditions for the grant of bail under PMLA as well as the triple test for the grant of bail. The judge had also underlined that special judge’s order was well reasoned and relieved on the basis of material on record and didn’t suffer from any illegality or infirmity.