NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday sent former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to judicial custody till March 20 in the excise scam case, after the CBI said it did not require the custody of the senior Aam Aadmi Party leader for now.
Sisodia was produced before special judge M K Nagpal on the expiry of his seven-day custodial interrogation allowed by the court earlier.
At the outset, the counsel for CBI submitted before the court the investigative agency was not seeking his custody right now which it may do later.
The CBI accused AAP supporters of 'politicising' the matter. "An application to send the accused to judicial custody has been filed. It is submitted that the CBI custody is no longer required and the same may be sought later if required. In view of submission made, the accused is sent to JC till March 20," the court said.
It allowed Sisodia to carry the Bhagavad Gita, spectacles, medicine etc to jail while directing the Tihar jail authorities to consider his request for being allowed to do Vipassana meditation.
The CBI had arrested Sisodia last week in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped liquor policy for 2021-22.
On Saturday, scores of Aam Aadmi Party workers had protested at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg on Saturday, demanding the release of Manish Sisodia. Holding placards in support of Sisodia, they had gathered outside the party headquarter as Sisodia was produced before the Rouse Avenue court.
Sisodia had been arrested after being interrogated for eight hours. The CBI said he was arrested over ‘evasive replies’. The court then had granted five days of custody to Sisodia.
On March 5, nine opposition leaders had written to the Prime Minister flagging the blatant misuse of investigating agencies to eliminate the opposition and alleged that the arrest 'was indicative of India’s transition from being a democracy to an autocracy.'
The issue of Governors acting in violation of the constitutional provisions and hindering the governance of the states was also raised in a letter signed by main Opposition leaders including Arvind Kejriwal (AAP) Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief Chandrasekhar Rao, Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) chief Farooq Abdullah, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
"On the 26th of February 2023, after a long witch-hunt, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with alleged irregularity without a shred of evidence against him. The allegations against Sisodia are outrightly baseless and smack of a political conspiracy,” stated the letter.
“The arrest suggests that “we have transitioned from being a democracy to an autocracy,” it stated.
(With PTI inputs)