The Special Court on Friday while denying bail to Delhi’s former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the evidence collected so far by the CBI not only shows the applicant’s active participation in the above criminal conspiracy but also shows the prima facie commission of some substantive offences of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act by him.
The court said that there is also nothing apparent on record to infer or show that Sisodia’s arrest, in this case, was illegal or violative of any directions of the Supreme Court or the High Courts and rather, the material placed before this court by the CBI justifies the arrest of the applicant in the case.
“Further, even though the medical condition of the wife of the applicant has been sought to be made a ground for grant of bail to him, it is observed that though the neurological or mental illness of the wife of the applicant is claimed to be around 20 years old, the documents filed on record in support thereof are found to be of the years 2022-2023 only,” the court stated.
The Court further added, “Moreover, the condition of the wife of the applicant as revealed through these documents cannot be considered to be severe or serious enough to release the applicant on bail and the same also cannot be taken to mean that she cannot take care of herself or has to be necessarily taken care of by the applicant only”.
The Rouse Avenue Court on Friday while dismissing the bail plea of Manish Sisodia, said, “The court is not inclined to release him on bail at this stage of investigation of the case as his release may adversely affect the ongoing investigation and will also seriously hamper the progress.”
Manish Sisodia’s bail plea on Friday was dismissed by the trial court, in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case pertaining to alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy of the Union Territory government.
Special Judge MK Nagpal dismissed the bail plea and said, “In the opinion of this court, the allegations made against the applicant (Manish Sisodia) are serious in nature and at this stage of the case, he does not deserve to be released on bail as he has been arrested in this case only on February 26, 2023, and investigation even qua his role has still not been completed, what to say about some other co-accused involved in the case whose roles are also yet being investigated”.
According to the CBI, Sisodia had played the most important and vital role in the criminal conspiracy and he had been deeply involved in the formulation as well as the implementation of the said policy to ensure the achievement of the objectives of the said conspiracy.
“The payment of advance kickbacks of around Rs 90-100 crores were meant for him and his other colleagues in the GNCTD and Rs 20-30 crores out of the above are found to have been routed through the co-accused Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally and approver Dinesh Arora and in turn, certain provisions of the excise policy were permitted to be tweaked and manipulated by the applicant to protect and preserve the interests of South liquor lobby and to ensure repayment of the kickbacks to the said lobby,” stated CBI.
The evidence collected so far clearly shows that the applicant through the co-accused Vijay Nair was in contact with the South lobby and formulation of a favourable policy for them was being ensured at every cost and a cartel was permitted to be formed to achieve a monopoly in sales of certain liquor brands of favoured manufacturers and it was permitted to be done against very objectives of the policy.
Thus, as per allegations made by the prosecution and the evidence collected in support thereof so far, the applicant can prima facie be held to be an architect of the said criminal conspiracy, noted the Court.
Sisodia is presently in judicial custody and scheduled to be produced before the court on 3 April 2023.
