The sun was mellow outside the leafy precincts of the Rouse Avenue Court complex in Delhi which was unusually fortified with security forces on the sleepy spring afternoon of February 28, 2023. Inside, the courtroom in which AAP leader Manish Sisodia was to be produced was swarming with lawyers and journalists, eagerly waiting for him to show up.
In due time, Sisodia, then still Deputy CM of Delhi, was escorted in by a posse of cops. He was sporting a frozen smile and seemed ill at ease, a far cry from someone touted by his party to be an efficient administrator.
Being accused number one in a corruption case related to the city’s excise policy, and being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Sisodia’s fall from grace has an eerie resemblance to the fate of his ex-colleague Satyendar Jain, former Delhi Health Minister, who is behind bars after being arrested in May last year by the Enforcement Directorate in a five-year-old money laundering case.
Sisodia, who was arrested on February 26, and remanded to the CBI’s custody by the court, had rushed to the Supreme Court challenging the remand order on February 28, which the top court refused to entertain. Hours later, Jain and Sisodia tendered their resignations as ministers from the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi cabinet.
While Jain has been in jail for the last ten months, Sisodia’s fate is uncertain as the CBI is set to produce him in court on Monday at the end of the remand period. The court may, after listening to the arguments from both sides, extend his custodial interrogation, remand him to judicial custody or give him some interim relief.
Notably, the court had on Saturday told the Central probe agency to conclude the interrogation process within two days. Unlike Jain’s case, the charges against Sisodia relate to the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy for 2021-22, which allegedly favoured certain liquor dealers in exchange for cash.
The CBI’s case against the AAP leader
The Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22, which ostensibly aimed to increase government revenue by bringing in private players, was launched on November 17, 2021. The Delhi govt went on to award 849 liquor vends to private companies through an open bidding process. The national Capital was divided into 32 zones, each to be served by a maximum of 27 liquor vends. Instead of granting individual licences, bidding was done zone-wise.
The policy, the Delhi govt claimed, would improve customer experience and end the liquor mafia’s influence and black marketing of liquor in the city. The CBI has alleged that huge amounts of money were paid as kickbacks to public servants by liquor traders for formulating certain provisions in the Excise Policy. Around Rs 20-30 crore was paid to Sisodia, AAP communication in-charge Vijay Nair and other officials in the Delhi government by some liquor businessmen from South India, referred to as the ‘South lobby’, it says.
The ED case registered under the PMLA is connected to the CBI’s FIR for criminal conspiracy, which alleged that around Rs 100 crore were paid to the public servants involved in the ‘scam’ which caused a loss of around Rs 2,873 crore to the exchequer. The ‘South lobby’ was controlling nine retail zones and about 30 per cent of the Delhi liquor market, as per the ED.
‘Manish played an active role’
The CBI has alleged that Manish Sisodia played an active role in the commission of the alleged offences as he was a Member of the Group of Ministers as well as the Delhi Excise Minister when the policy in question was framed. The policy was formed on the basis of a report by an expert committee report and was implemented by the Aam Aadmi Party-led government in Delhi with effect from November 17, 2021.
However, the CBI says, the minister had made certain changes in the cabinet note based on the draft policy submitted by the committee which had also taken into account opinions received from the general public and stakeholders. This was done with ‘some ulterior motives and designs’ and to help some individuals and groups in achieving the illegal objective of cartelisation and monopoly in the sale of liquor in Delhi, it alleged.
The CBI’s case was lodged on August 17 under IPC Section 120B IPC (Punishment for criminal conspiracy) and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (Corruption while serving as a public servant) against a total of 15 persons specifically named in the FIR, which included Sisodia who was then Delhi Deputy Chief Minister holing 18 portfolios including that of Excise Minister.
One chargesheet in the case has already been filed by the probe agency before the court against a total of seven persons including Hyderabad-based liquor businessmen and Nair.
The CBI informed the court that it became necessary to arrest Sisodia in the case as he was not cooperating in the investigation and did not disclose the true facts related to the ‘conspiracy.’ The role of the accused persons as well as the trail of the ill-gotten money received through hawala channels needed to be established, it said. It has been submitted that he was giving evasive replies to the questions put to him, not giving correct answers and denying the facts which were exclusively in his ‘personal knowledge.’
On the other hand, Sisodia’s lawyers have argued that the allegations against him are ‘totally false’ as the Excise Policy was an act of the Council of Ministers which cannot be challenged in court and it had subsequently got the approval of the then Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal.
A blow to AAP’s political ambitions
Manish Sisodia’s arrest and his resignation from the Delhi government cabinet are being considered a blow to the party which got recognition as a ‘national Pprty’ within 10 years of its formation. Aiming to expand its base across the country, especially in the states where the BJP’s opponents are not strong, the AAP is making all-out efforts to occupy space as an Opposition party there.
This relentless effort helped the party form the government in Punjab in just its second attempt and snatch the reigns of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) after 15 years of BJP’s rule.
The party, run by a handful number of office bearers and followed by a relatively small cadre, has surprised everybody with its performance in Goa, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh during the last round of state Assembly elections.
Now its national convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal are busy campaigning in states like Karnataka and Chhattisgarh where Assembly elections are due later this year. Kejriwal, interestingly, holds no portfolios in Delhi while his erstwhile deputy was holding 18 out of the total 33 portfolios including Health, Education, Home, Excise, Urban Development and all the departments not assigned to any other ministers.
The party has been making much of the so-called ‘Delhi model of education and health’ claiming that Sisodia, as a minister in charge of these departments, had transformed these sectors. According to political analysts, there was an understanding between the two top AAP leaders that one will ensure the party’s expansion in other states while the other will manage major departments in the national Capital. Now that Sisodia is on the radar of investigative agencies, the party’s expansion plans may come to a grinding halt.
The party is facing two major elections, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and 2025 Delhi Assembly elections, in the next couple of years and the sudden arrest of one of its founding leaders is indubitably a major jolt to it.
The continuing attacks on the AAP by Delhi BJP functionaries regarding the issue and the party’s continuing face-off with the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi has cornered the Delhi government to a certain extent and now there will be significant pressure on the AAP to field efficient ministers to handle the major departments of the national Capital.
The Aam Party Party is facing a huge crisis and all its claims of ‘good governance’ have fallen through for the time being.
Sisodia held charge of excise minister
The CBI’s case was lodged on August 17, 2022 under IPC Section 120B IPC (Punishment for criminal conspiracy) and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (Corruption while serving as a public servant) against a total of 15 persons specifically named in the FIR, which included Sisodia who was then Deputy CM holding 18 portfolios including that of Excise Minister
Sisodia tweaked policy to favour lobby: CBI
Just when the party was looking to extend its political footprint, Manish Sisodia’s arrest by the CBI by citing substantial charges against him has put it on the back foot. Voters may now take its boasts of ‘good governance’ with a pinch of salt, write Jaison Wilson and Anup Verma