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Synopsis

A Delhi Court on Tuesday "reserved orders" in the bail plea filed by former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia in a case registered by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with the Delhi liquor scam case. 

Special Judge MK Nagpal said, "Orders are reserved. List for pronouncement of order on April 26 at 4 pm".

Sisodia is currently under judicial custody in the CBI case till April 27 and in the ED case till April 29.

Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Zoheb Hossain appeared for the ED, and Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan and Advocate Vivek Jain appeared for Sisodia.

Hossain, had earlier contended, “It is a 'Pendrive Policy' given to Mr. Arvind, Secretary of Manish Sisodia to copy paste it”. He had also submitted that the suggestion of the expert committee for excise policy was to invite individuals and give only two retail vents. In Delhi, it used to happen through a lottery system, so that nobody has any idea who is picked, but Sisodia opted not to use this lottery system, he had argued.

"Not a shred of evidence why private wholesalers were opted instead of government... Conspiracy was hatched in secrecy; all the elements of conspiracy are present," he had said.

The SPP had submitted that Sanjay Goel, the then Excise Commissioner, has stated that there was no discussion of giving wholesale to private players. “He is the man who has the confidence over the administration, he is the man who signs all the documents on day to day basis”, he had added.

Hossain had stated that if the wholesale business was kept with the government, there was no manner in which the kickbacks could have been taken. “Therefore, a new policy was framed, in lieu of Kickbacks”, he had argued.

“We have evidence that Sisodia had e-mails planted. These have been received not only in the official e-mail account of the Excise Department but even in his personal e-mail account. The content of the e-mails was given by Sisodia which suited his agenda,” Hossain had said concluding his submissions.

It is to be noted that Sisodia had been denied bail by the Special Judge in CBI's case related to the Delhi liquor policy scam on March 31. He has moved the Delhi High Court challenging the denial of bail and the matter is being heard by the bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma. The single-judge bench has issued notice to ED in the plea and the matter is listed for hearing on April 20. 

Case Title: Manish Sisodia v. Directorate of Enforcement 

Statue: The Prevention of Money Laundering Act; The Code of Criminal Procedure