A concerted effort is being made to “delay the trial” in the Delhi excise policy case by former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and other co-accused, a court said denying the leader bail and countering the argument that the case hearing is proceeding at a snail’s pace.
The court also rejected the senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader’s argument that he should be given bail to look after his ailing wife as there is no one in his family to take care of her.
“The applicant has a son who can take care of his wife,” A Rouse Avenue court said, adding that her medical record shows that she has been suffering from the ailment since long and receiving requisite medical treatment for it.
“The application discloses no imminent of urgent need or any medical emergency warranting release of the accused on bail for this reason,” the court noted.
The court order had come on Tuesday, a detailed copy of which was made available on Wednesday.
Mr. Sisodia had filed two bail pleas in the corruption and money laundering cases lodged against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
He was arrested by the Central probe agencies in February last year. This is the second time that the trial court has rejected the bail pleas of Mr. Sisodia. His bail was first rejected on March 31, 2023.
The Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court had upheld the trial court’s order.
During the hearing on his bail applications, the CBI had submitted in the court that Mr. Sisodia is the “mastermind” and “architect” of the alleged scam.
The counsel representing the AAP leader argued that he has been in jail for over 14 months now and the trial going on at “snail’s pace”.
Countering this, Special Judge Kaveri Baweja said, “The steady progression of the case, despite the apparent attempts to slow down its progress, cannot by any standards be equated with a snail’s pace.”
The court said Mr. Sisodia and other accused have been filing multiple applications or making oral submissions, some of them frivolous, that too on a piecemeal basis, “apparently as a concerted effort for accomplishing the shared purpose of causing delay in the matter”.
The case against the Mr. Sisodia is based on the FIR initially filed by the CBI on the complaint of the Delhi Lieutenant-Governor, alleging multiple irregularities the excise policy for 2021-22, which was subsequently withdrawn.
After the CBI case, the ED filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, alleging that the money earned through the excise policy was diverted through “hawala” channels to be spent on the AAP’s campaign in Goa ahead of the Assembly election there in 2022.
