Excise Policy Case: SC To Hear Manish Sisodia’s Bail Pleas On July 29

Manish Sisodia

The Supreme Court is set to hear Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia’s bail pleas on Monday in connection with corruption and money laundering cases related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

Sisodia, the former deputy chief minister of Delhi, has been in custody for 16 months and is seeking bail, arguing that his trial has made no progress since October last year.

According to the Supreme Court’s cause list for July 29, Justices BR Gavai and K V Viswanathan will preside over Sisodia’s pleas. On July 16, the apex court agreed to hear the pleas and requested responses from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Sisodia has also filed an application to revive his bail petitions in the excise policy-linked corruption and money laundering cases. He was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023, for alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy 2021-22, which has since been scrapped. The ED arrested him in a related money laundering case on March 9, 2023.

He resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023. Sisodia’s plea notes that a law officer for the investigating agencies informed the Supreme Court on June 4 that the charge sheet and prosecution complaint in the main excise policy case and the related money laundering case would be filed by July 3. A prosecution complaint is the ED’s equivalent of a charge sheet.

On June 4, the Supreme Court declined to entertain Sisodia’s bail pleas but allowed him to revive his petitions once the ED and CBI filed their final prosecution complaint and charge sheet, respectively. The court indicated that any new bail application would be considered on its own merits, as stated in its October 30, 2023, order.

Sisodia had previously challenged the Delhi High Court’s May 21 order dismissing his bail pleas, as well as a trial court’s April 30 order rejecting his bail applications in both cases.

On October 30, the Supreme Court denied Sisodia bail in the two cases, citing evidence that the alleged “windfall gains” of Rs 338 crore to wholesale liquor dealers were “tentatively supported.” The court allowed Sisodia to seek relief if there was a change in circumstances or if the trial was unduly prolonged.