Former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has got a big relief. Manish Sisodia, arrested in the alleged liquor scam, has got bail from the Supreme Court. Manish Sisodia was lodged in Tihar Jail for 17 months.
In view of the delay in starting the trial in the alleged liquor scam, the Supreme Court has granted bail in both CBI and ED cases.
The Supreme Court bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice KV Vishwanathan had reserved the decision on Sisodia’s bail plea on August 6. Giving the verdict on this on Friday, Justice Gavai said that due to the long imprisonment of 17 months and the trial not starting, he has been deprived of the right to a hearing.
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During this, the Supreme Court also said that considering more than 400 witnesses, there is no possibility of the trial being completed soon.
Bail has been granted on these conditions
While granting bail to Manish Sisodia, the Supreme Court said that he is a respected person of the society and there is no possibility of him running away. It also said that most of the evidence in this case has been collected, so there is no possibility of tampering with it. However, conditions can be imposed on him in case of influencing or intimidating witnesses.
The Supreme Court has granted bail to Manish Sisodia on a bond of Rs 10 lakh. Along with this, two big conditions have also been imposed. The first condition is that he will have to submit his passport. And the second condition is that he will have to go to the police station and mark his attendance every Monday.
CBI-ED’s appeal rejected
After the verdict, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the CBI and ED, had requested the court to impose conditions similar to those in the Arvind Kejriwal case.
ASG Raju had appealed to the court that like Kejriwal, Sisodia should be banned from going to the secretariat. However, the court rejected this appeal.
Was in jail since 26 February 2023
Manish Sisodia was arrested on 26 February last year in the alleged liquor scam in Delhi. After this, on 9 October, the ED also arrested Sisodia.
Sisodia is accused of taking arbitrary and unilateral decisions while being the Excise Minister. Amit Arora, Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey, accused in the liquor scam, are considered close to Sisodia.
It is alleged that the three collected money from liquor businessmen with the help of government officials and diverted it to another place. According to the CBI FIR, Arjun Pandey had taken Rs 2 to 4 crore from liquor businessman Sameer Mahendru. This amount was taken by Vijay Nair. Vijay Nair has also been the communication in-charge of Aam Aadmi Party for a few years.
The CBI registered a case in this case on 17 August 2022. Manish Sisodia, three former government officials, 9 businessmen and two companies were made accused in this. There were also allegations of money laundering in the scam, so the ED also got involved in it. After registering the case, the CBI and ED conducted raids and started arrests. The ED and CBI have alleged in their charge sheet that the Delhi government allegedly suffered a loss of Rs 2,873 crore due to the excise policy of 2021-22.
What is Delhi’s alleged liquor scam?
On 17 November 2021, the Kejriwal government of Delhi implemented the Excise Policy 2021-22. Under the new policy, the government came out of the liquor business and the entire shops went into private hands.
The Delhi government claimed that the new liquor policy would end the mafia rule and increase the government’s revenue. However, this policy was in controversy from the very beginning and when the uproar increased, the government canceled it on 28 July 2022.
The alleged liquor scam was revealed on 8 July 2022 by the report of the then Chief Secretary of Delhi, Naresh Kumar.
In this report, he made serious allegations against many big leaders of Aam Aadmi Party including Manish Sisodia. Delhi LG VK Saxena recommended a CBI inquiry. After this, CBI registered a case on 17 August 2022. There was also an allegation of money laundering in this, so ED also registered a case to investigate money laundering.
In his report, the Chief Secretary had accused Manish Sisodia of preparing the liquor policy in a wrong manner. Manish Sisodia also had the Excise Department. It was alleged that through the new policy, licensed liquor businessmen were given unfair benefits.
The report alleged that under the pretext of Covid, license fees of Rs 144.36 crore were waived off arbitrarily. Rs 30 crore were also returned to the licensees of the airport zone, whereas this amount was to be confiscated.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)