The accused were causing a delay in the trial of the excise policy case by filing certain frivolous applications, a Delhi court said on Tuesday while denying bail to former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in the corruption and money laundering cases related to the alleged scam.
The court of Special Judge Kaveri Baweja also noted that while scrutinising documents, almost all the accused persons in the excise policy case requested hard copies of documents relied upon after the Supreme Court denied bail to Sisodia in October. Sisodia himself moved 13 applications before the court.
“…it is thus apparent that the applicant individually, and along with different accused have been filing one or the other application/making oral submissions frequently, 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,” noted Judge Baweja. The court’s order also provided a list of 135 applications moved by 31 accused people. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said Sisodia would approach the Delhi High Court against the lower court’s denial of bail.
The court also noted that Sisodia’s wife had multiple sclerosis for a long time and had been receiving medical treatment for the same. It was held that Sisodia had disclosed no “imminent or urgent” need warranting his release on these grounds.
While Sisodia’s counsel had earlier argued for his bail on the grounds of delay, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) submitted that mere delay could not be grounds for interim bail if the offences are grave in nature.
The court said the “steady progression of the case, despite the apparent attempts to slow down its progress, cannot, by any standards, be equated with “snail’s pace.” In October, while denying bail to Sisodia, the Supreme Court said that he could file a fresh bail if the trial moved at a “snail’s pace”.
Opposing his bail plea, the ED had argued that Sisodia destroyed 14 mobile phones and that there was a high chance that he would tamper with evidence and influence witnesses and suspects in the excise policy case. Sisodia’s counsel, on the other hand, argued that the accused should be granted bail if the court found that the trial was not proceeding for reasons not attributable to him.
Sisodia filed a bail plea in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court a few months after the Supreme Court rejected it. The ED is investigating the money laundering aspect of the excise policy case and informed the apex court that the trial would be completed within six to eight months. However, six months have passed since then, and the charges in the excise policy case have yet to be framed.
Sisodia was accused of interfering in the formulation of the Delhi excise policy in an extra-procedural manner. It was alleged that he made changes to the policy to benefit specific liquor entities, resulting in a loss of several hundred crores to the state treasury. He was first arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in February 2023 and later by the ED in March of the same year. The ED chargesheet named Sisodia a “key conspirator” in the case, after which he resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023.
According to the ED’s allegations, wholesale distributors received a fixed fee of Rs 581 crore due to an increase in the commission (distribution fee) from 5 per cent under the previous policy to 12 per cent under the new excise policy, which was later cancelled.