Bhubaneswar: The Supreme Court on Monday denied bail to former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in corruption and money-laundering cases related to the now-scrapped excise policy for the national capital. Money trail has been established in the case. Supreme Court directed to conclude the trial in the case in six to eight months, saying if the trial proceeds at a slow pace, Sisodia can apply for bail again at a later stage.
There were two separate regular bail pleas and a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti had reserved its verdict on October 17 on both. On October 17, the top court told the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that if a bribe that was allegedly paid for tweaking the Delhi excise policy is not part of the predicate offence, it would be difficult to prove the money-laundering case against Manish Sisodia.
Supreme Court had told the federal agency that it cannot go on assumptions of bribe being paid and whatever protection is there under the law, needs to be granted.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Manish Sisodia, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader on February 26 for his alleged role in the Delhi liqour policy “scam”. The AAP leader has been in custody since then.
ED arrested Manish Sisodia in a money-laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9 after questioning him in Tihar jail.
