SC to hear Sisodia’s bail plea on July 14

In a ray of hope for the former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the Supreme Court has said that it will hear his bail plea on July 14 related to the Delhi Excise scam.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha agreed to hear the matter after senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, urged the court to take it up for hearing on grounds that his wife was seriously ill and hospitalised.
The bench said although the matter is listed for hearing on July 17, it will take it up for hearing on July 14. Last week, Sisodia had moved the top court seeking bail in the CBI and ED cases related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.
He has moved the apex court challenging the two orders of the Delhi High Court dismissing his bail petitions in these cases.
Sisodia, who also held the excise portfolio among many that he handled as the deputy chief minister of Delhi, was first arrested by the CBI on February 26 for his alleged role in the “scam”, and has been in custody since then. He resigned from Delhi cabinet on February 28.
The high court had on May 30 denied bail to him in the excise policy scam case being probed by the CBI, saying having been the deputy chief minister and excise minister, he is a “high-profile” person who has the potential to influence the witnesses. On July 3, the high court had declined him bail in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the city government’s excise policy, holding the charges against him were “very serious in nature”.