Excise Case: Delhi HC notice to ED on Manish Sisodia’s regular, interim bail plea

Manish Sisodia, a former deputy chief minister of Delhi, filed a bail petition in a money laundering case involving an alleged excise scam on Thursday, and the Delhi High Court on Friday served notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the request.

In light of his wife’s sickness, he has requested six weeks’ bail and moved for temporary release. On Thursday, the Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma bench ordered ED to submit a joint response within a week, with the deadline set for May 11. According to the court’s records, his wife’s condition was cited as another justification for interim bail.Manish Sisodia’s request for bail in the ED-investigated money laundering case was previously rejected by the trial court.

The Rouse Avenue Court last week dismissed the bail plea of Manish Sisodia in a money laundering case related to the Excise scam stating that “this case of economic offences having serious repercussions upon the general public and society at large as the evidence collected during investigation speaks volumes of his involvement in the commission of the said offence”

Court also noted that some evidence is also alleged to have surfaced during the investigation to show that some part of the kickback or bribe amount received from South lobby was spent or utilized in connection with the election campaign of the AAP in Goa and some cash payments through hawala channels are alleged to have been sent to Goa for bearing the said expenses and even some fake invoices are alleged to have been created as a cover-up for the cash amounts transferred through hawala channels.

It is stated that the above cash transfers were made as per instructions of the coaccused Vijay Nair, who was the representative of the applicant and the AAP and also the Media Incharge of AAP and looking after the work related to said elections and he also roped in a company named M/S Chariot Productions Media Pvt. Ltd. owned by the coaccused Rajesh Joshi to do the election-related advertising work and other jobs for the party during said elections, noted the court.